Cry of the Youko
by kyugan
Summary: Youko, otherwise reffered to as Demon foxes. Cunning, swift, masters of thievery, seduction and deceit. Konoha is about to learn the hard way what it means to have one living under their noses. NaruHina, eventual NaruHarem
1. Chapter 1

A word of thanks to all those who read, or are still reading my first fic, Naruto Gaiden.

Be warned, this is an entirely unrelated fic, thouygh Naruto will develop a different attitude as per the norm.

I hope that this fic appeals to your literary tastebuds as my first work did, which will still be updated have no fear.

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Cry of the youko

Chapter one.

Konohagakure, the hidden leaf village; One of the greatest shinobi villages, which have the honor of being lead by a kage.

In this case, the Sandaime Hokage, otherwise known as 'Professor' Sarutobi, is the current hokage, a man of great age and wisdom, who has carried the leaf through hell and high water, with nary a thought for himself.

However, there are times, such as today for instance, that he'd rather be retired.

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'That makes twelve attempts on the child's life in as many hours.'

Sarutobi sighed as the ANBU escorted a ranting villager off for interrogation.

'For the love of all that's holy,' the elder muttered, 'he's only a child.'

He looked over at the infant, the scar from the man's dagger already healing, thanks to the child's...tenant.

"Naruto…I never wished for this to happen…never."

He sighed, "I can only hope, that the villagers will come to see you as the yondaime did, as a hero."

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Four years later…

"Monster!"

Naruto winced as the blows kept coming, stones, refuse, whatever they could find, the villagers always threw at him whenever he came into view.

"Go back to hell where you belong, monster!" a woman yelled, chucking a particularly jagged rock at the boy, moving to guide her children away. The rock hit the blonde on the chin, resulting in him stumbling back, the bruise quickly beginning to heal.

All the boy had wanted was to go to the park and play with some kids his own age, but whenever he tried, their parents drove him off.

Naruto didn't know what hurt more, when they yelled at him and threw things at him, or when they pointedly ignored him, even if he tried to talk to them.

No…it was definitely the ones that ignored him…as if he wasn't even there…as if he was no more than a speck of dirt at their feet.

"Go away you demon!" someone yelled, hurling another can at the boy; this time, Naruto complied, turning around as if to make off, when a gentle, yet firm hand, rested on his head.

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"I saw all that." Sarutobi muttered, causing the villagers to squirm in apprehension.

The hokage didn't sound pleased, never a good sign.

"And I heard every word as well."

With a snap of his fingers, several ANBU appeared behind the ringleaders of the mob, swords at their throats.

"I'm sure Morino Ibiki would love to hear your explanations for this." the Hokage muttered, eyes cold.

As the men and women cried out in protest, Sarutobi turned to the boy, smiling gently.

"Naruto, are you alright?"

The blonde didn't answer, aside from turning on his heel and walking away, a sad sight in his torn clothes.

Sarutobi watched the boy leave with a sad look in his eyes. Then he sighed, before motioning for the ANBU to take their captives away.

'I really wonder what I see ion these people...really I do.'

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Naruto walked back to his apartment, avoiding the more crowded areas of the city like his life depended on it, which more often than not it DID.

Not that it mattered, they alweays managed to find him in the end.

"Well, look who it is." A voice snickered, causing Naruto to stiffen, "the demon, come for its daily punishment."

Naruto tried to run, but as usual a pair of rough hands grabbed him by the arms, hoisting him off his feet as a fist collided with his stomach.

"Can't have you running away, now can we?"

Naruto blackd out as the blows began to fall, falling into blissful darkness.

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The blonde jinchuuriki stumbled into his apartment, limping as a result of a half healed broken leg.

The more serious wounds already healed, but his body still covered in bruises, and he was trailing the aforementioned broken leg. Taking off his ruined clothes, the young boy placed some bandages on his cuts and climbed into bed, wincing as he felt his leg bones crack back into place.

Exhausted from both beatings and the day in general, the boy retresaated to his dreams,the one place where they could never reach him, his sole sanctuary.

Unfortunately for Naruto, it would not be his dreams that welcomed him tonight.

As the boy fell into a fitful slumber, instead of his usual dreams of better days, or his nightmares of the beatings, he found himself apparently hovering in thin air, looking oiver a burning village.

There was the sound of metal on metal, the scent of burning leaves, and a roar that shattered the air.

'Where am I?'

Abruptly, the scenery changed, from a burning battlefield to what appeared to be a massive room. Concrete walls and leaking pipes filled the room, the boy was actually up to his ankles in water that barely reflected his frightened image. What scared the child the most however, was the gate.

It stood, thousands of feet high, taller even than the hokage monument, and wider than the village gates by at least four times. There was no sign of any keyhole, though halfway between the gates there was a single talisman with the kanji for 'seal' placed over it.

"**Who dares to trespass upon my dreams?"**

Naruto jumped at the voice, and actually fell over as a pair of blood red eyes ten times bigger than those of the carved stone faces on the monument, gazed down on him, surrounded by a red haze.

**"So…my jailer has decided to visit his prisoner."** There was a snort of derision, **"To what do I owe the…pleasure, of this meeting, ningen?"**

Naruto could only stutter in terror at the eyes, it didn't help when the creature growled.

"**Why do you not answer, are you deaf as well as stupid?"**

When this received no reply other than a terrified stutter the growl deepened.

"**You try my patience child! Answer my question, lest I lose my temper!"**

Naruto yelped and covered his head, whimpering in fear. The Kyuubi was about to roar another demand when the boy's mutterings reached his sensitive ears.

"Don't hurt me...don't hurt me…please don't hurt me…I didn't do it…"

Curiosity spiked, the youko's ears twitched, and he gazed down at his container.

The boy looked underfed, scrawny, and if the clothes he was wearing were any indication, he was little better off than a beggar.

The youko snorted in disgust, to think that he, the mightiest of all youko, the legendary nine-tailed fox, would be imprisoned in such a vessel, the gods must be laughing at him.

"**Boy…"**the ancient fox called out, tone calm, **"come closer."**

When Naruto looked up the eyes were still frowning, but they were no longer trying to nail him to the wall.

"**You have my word that I will not harm you…for now."**

Reassured, somewhat, by this, Naruto approached the cage, looking up at the eyes in wonder. This close, he could almost make out the image of the youko's massive forelegs, it's powerful neck, and the redness of its fur, though still enveloped in shadow.

"**Your name boy, do you have one?"** the youko asked, lowering its head to look at the boy.

Naruto nodded, "Naruto…Uzumaki Naruto."

Kyuubi's snout wrinkled in disgust.

'**What kind of parent would name their child after a fishcake?'** the mighty demon wondered, saying as much to the boy.

When the child's shoulders sagged the demon realized his mistake.

"I don't have any parents." Naruto muttered, looking at the ground, "They said monsters like me don't deserve any."

Kyuubi's fur bristled at this, his instincts setting him into a mild fury.

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In Makai, where demons reign supreme, children are a rarity, since the dangers of that world make child rearing nigh impossible.

As such, most demons, youko's in particular, are very protective of their young, even going so far as to protect the young of others, for a suitable price of course.

The fact of the matter being, it was considered disgusting, even to demons, to attack a child deliberately. Using them as hostages or shields was one thing, but demons that purposefully targeted children were considered to be less than scum.

Of course accidental deaths caused by collateral damge were tolerated to an extent...but in general, the amount of demons of Kyuubi's caliber, especially among the Youko clan, that would consciously harm a child was almost non-existent.

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'**And they call me a monster…how ironic.'**

Shaking himself out of his musings, the youko gazed at the child and caught his attention.

"**Boy, place your hands against the bars of the cage."**

When the boy hesitated, the fox sighed, exhasperated.

**"I merely wish to know more."**

Naruto swallowed and did as he was told; the Kyuubi tentatively touched the tip of one claw to the bars of the cage and concentrated on the boy.

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Abruptly, every moment of Naruto's short, painful life, flashed in front of the demon's eyes like a cinema screen on fast forward, from the cradle assassinations which the child only faintly recalled, right up to the most recent beating he suffered prior to returning home.

He heard the name calling through his own ears.

He felt every blow like they were bludegoning himto death.

How more often than not he cried himself to sleep…alone.

The Kyuubi felt the boys pain, physical and emotional, as they poured into his mind, and the fox wasn't too pleased with what he saw.

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The youko pulled his claw back as if scorched, growling in anger, causing Naruto to stumble back, eyes wide.

"**Hypocritical simians! And they dare to refer to me as a monster?!"**

Kyuubi's rage seemed to fill the room, his aura actually lighting the shadows and revealing more of his majestic form, all nine tails lashing like serpents in his fury.

"**Who are they to call me a monster, when they would treat a mere child like he were a leper, or a piece of excrement!"**

A sniffle drew the beast's attention to his vessel, the sight of the child's tears causing him to frown.

"**What ails you, boy?"**

"It was…so sad…" Naruto sniffed, tears streaming down his face, "Kyoko-san…the cubs…"

Kyuubi froze, as if his entire being was turned to ice by those few words.

"**What did you see…boy?"**

Naruto shivered, wiping his face, still sobbing lightly.

"You were, coming home…and the bad men…with the cloud coats…"

The boy shivered, holding his thin knees up to his chin.

"Kyoko-san…she was…she was…"

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Kyuubi stared at the boy in wonderment.

The Demon had not expected the link to have worked both ways, the boy's mental strength must be stronger than he'd expected a child's to be.

The beast's fur ruffled, showing his anxiety. Had he not pulled back at that precise moment, how much more of his past would the child have been privy to?

There were some things that the human mind could not handle; the more sordid memories of a demon were one of them.

"We're the same."

Kyuubi looked at the boy, curious.

"**What did you say?"** he asked, though his hearing was quite astute, he simply wondered what the boy could possibly mean.

Naruto, tears still staining his face, looked up into the fox's eyes for the first time, without a hint of fear, and said:

"You and I…we both hurt."

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Kyuubi looked down at the boy in wonder, and something inside him realized that the little child was right.

Humans had hurt both of them.

The boy? From the very moment of his birth they had tormented him.

Kyuubi? They murdered his beloved mate, and banished him to this disgraceful imprisonment.

'**Inari's whiskers.**' The beast whispered, en-awed at the child's startling insight.

"Why are you crying?" the boy asked looking up at the fox, and to the Youko's shock, he discovered he was.

He the mighty lord of all the Bijuu, was shedding actual tears, tears he had not allowed to fall since his mate had been murdered in their den.

"I'm sorry…are you hurt?"

Shaking it's mighty head, the vulpine demon eyed the child reverently.

"**No…kit…I am fine."**

The ancient fox lowered his head so that his snout touched the bars.

"**I am the one…who owes YOU an apology…where it not for me, you would never have been harmed as you have."**

The boy looked up to the fox in wonder, before standing up and placing a hand through the bars, touching the fur of the fox's snout, then, to the shock of the fox, crying again.

"**What ails you boy?"** he asked, and was surprised by the answer.

"You're the first person, to say they were sorry…"

The boy broke down again, sobbing into the beast's fur.

Kyuubi sighed, wishing he could comfort the boy, but knowing it was pointless, as he could no more cross the barrier than the child could tear it down with his bare hands.

"Can you come out?" the boy asked, placing a hand on the bar, as if wondering how to open it, the fox sighed.

"**I am sealed behind these gates for all time, you are my jailer, and I, your prisoner."**

At the four year olds look of confusion the fox sighed again, like an exasperated uncle.

"**You see that paper on the door? It's a seal, so long as it's there, I cannot come out."**

Naruto nodded in understanding before yawning.

"'m sleepy…" he muttered, leaning against the bars heavilly.

Kyuubi's snout twitched in concern and the giant vulpine shifted, focusing his chakra out to envelop the boy.

"**Return to your bed, little one…you need your rest."**

Naruto yawned as the chakra gently enveloped him, carrying him back to his body.

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That night, Naruto dreamed he was a fox, running through a field chasing after his mothers tail.

It was one of the best dreams he ever had, and it wouldn't be the last.

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Deep within the confines of his prison, Kyuubi gazed into the water just outside his prison, where for a brief moment the image of another fox stood alongside his own reflection.

"Kyoko-Koi…I know how much you longed for a family…"

The shadowy image of the vixen gave off a silent bark as if laughing, and turned on it's heels, tails twitching mockingly.

"I assure you…this is one cub I WON'T fail."

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Next Time: Kyuubi's living up to his word, can Naruto survive being raised as the adoptive 'Kit' of one of the most powerful Youko in existence?

And so the compulsory first chapter comes to a close.

Did it meet up to your expectations viewers? Send a Review to let me know!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two.

Kyuubi and Naruto's nighttime sessions went on over the passing weeks, the time between decreasing as the blonde memorized the path between dreamscape and reality. Within a matter of weeks, the boy's mental strength had reached the level where he could enter the dreamscape and leave it of his own volition.

Naruto, after being shunned and rejected his entire life was finally happy to have someone to confide in, and eagerly awaited these meetings with the ancient Kitsune, often leaving with a smile on his face.

Kyuubi, in return, asked Naruto to describe what he witnessed in town that day, from the smallest details, like the gossip of fishwives and the like, to rumours and tales of bravery from the shinobi populace, which the kitsune found laughable.

However, one thing that interested the fox above all else was the treatment of his vessel, andKyuubi would have Naruto recount everything that he endured from the villagers every day to the youko.

Every punch, every blow, every word that the thugs hurled at him, was added to a mental notch in the duo's minds, until they knew that the only way to prevent this obvious wrongdoing becoming a routine occurrence, was for them to start striking back.

As a result, Naruto learned two things; how to avoid being hurt, and to look out for number one: himself, two of the most basic lessons covered in the demon realm.

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The first thing Kyuubi taught the boy was how to detect his would be assailants, via their murderous intent, a mid-levle technique for mid-level demons, but for human's, quite the feat of skill. To compound it, the Demon had to send regulkar bursts of youki through the boy's chakra passages, gradually forcing them to change shape, until they could support the changes which were due to unfold.

It wasn't untill a week later that Naruto noticed his ears were beging to become slightly lenthened at the tip, and that the whisker marks on his face were becoming thicker and darker, more like tattoos than birth-scars. He compensated for this by wrapping bandages around his cheeks and growing out his hair slightly to cover the tips of his ears.

There was nothing the boy could do about hsi poupils though. Many a villager would recoil in shock at the sight of the youth's new slit-pupiled appearance. Thankfully, his eye color hadn't changed at all.

Despite the setbacks brought on by his enhanced senses, hearing being the hardest to adapt to, the boy took to the training like a duck to water, showing a knack for sensing his opponents that would put most demons to shame. Add to this the aforementioned enhancement of the boy's natural senses through use of Kyuubi's freely given chakra, and the result was several frustrated villagers, their would be punching bag having vanished in the crowd.

The second part of the first lesson was to avoid areas where he could be blamed for any misdeeds, thus Kyuubi taught him one of the basic techniques for all kitsune: hiding in plain sight.

People found it hard to blame the boy for cursing them when he'd never even spoken to them, let alone looked in their general direction. This applied to all manner of things, from stubbing their toes to the spouse's leaving them. So basically, according to Kyuubi, if an old woman tripped at the end of the street, Naruto was to make sure he was at the other end of it, and facing the opposite direction.

The villagers actually tried that particular trick several times, until the annoyed old woman had enough pretending to fall and merely chased the boy down the street with her cane. Naruto had managed to give the hag the slip by diving into a bush, where a small family of Foxes managed to make some room for him in their borough.

The boy needed a two-hour shower to get the smell of musk out of his clothes.

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The second lesson involved a little bit of effort however, since, by demon standards, the boy was as weak as a newborn kit.

For several weeks, Kyuubi placed Naruto on a strict regimen; The boy would run around the perimeter of the village at least twice a day, followed by various chakra and physical regiments, such as climbing trees, both the normal and shinobi way, and weight lifting, using junk from the scrap yard.

Naruto's new friends, the fox family, made excellent sentries during his workouts, and during his brief breaks, he could be spotted playing with the cubs or helping to catch a rabbit with the parents.

Once, the boy had managed to swipe some udon from an unsuspecting worker, the fox's went crazy for it, especially the Inari sushi, though the cubs were a little sick the next morning.

As a result, the Boy would reward them for their efforts by purchasing Udon and various other treats for them once a week, being carefull to avoid anything artificial, not wanting to poison the cubs.

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One thing that irked Kyuubi above all else, was the boy's lack of any material possessions, he even lacked any proper clothes.

True, he received a weekly allowance, no doubt from the old man the ningen referred to as the 'Hokage', but most of it was spent on the ridiculously jacked up prices the villagers charged him for the most outdated things, be they food, clothes, not to mention the rent he had to pay for this shit hole of an apartment. The kitsune had to restrain himself from howling at the indignity of his charge being forced to wear clothing so flourescant it would be suicide to even THINk of veturing outside, but actually had to reside in an apartment that, for all means and purposes, was little better off than a shack; the place didn't even have a constant supple of clear, heated water!

As such, it was time to teach the boy the first thing a youko kit learns besides its parents' scent: the fine art of stealing.

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The regimen for this was much harder, requiring weeksupon weeks of arduos training, both in the real world and their shared dreamscape. During the day, Naruto would practice infiltration and pilfering skills, breaking into abandoned structures and looting whatever he could find without being caught, while at night he'd be graded for his efforts, and then lectured on his skills, or lack thereof.

Initially, Naruto's skills were abysmal at best, and Kyuubi made a point to express his doubt that Naruto could sneak a cookie out of a jar without being spotted. Ironically, Naruto took it upon himself to do just that to prove his guardian wrong, and he was almost caught in the attempt. Kyuubi went to great lengths to remind the boy that were it not for the arrival of a rather portly man and his son, who caught the shopkeepers full attention, the blonde would have lost a hand, the sandaime's laws be hanged.

After this though, the boy progressed at an amazing pace, until it was quite common for shopkeepers to notice that their stock counts seemed a little lower than they first thought, or that some random citizen would find his wallet was a lot lighter than when he'd last checked. Naruto seemed quite the adept pickpocket, often walking off with the entire contents of several peoples wallets, their valuables, and in one case, several pairs of panties, which were later run up the flagpole outside the Hokage tower.

Fortunately, everyone blamed a strange, white haired man who'd been in the vicinity, so no-one caught on to the true culprits identity.

However, pilfering from the villagers was one thing, but if the boy hoped to manage in a village of shinobi, he'd need to be able to pull of his heists without being detected by the ninja population, and at the moment, the boy was nowhere near ready to do so without losing his arms, let alone a hand.

Fortunately for our hero, the Kyuubi was more than willing to up the ante.

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**"Kit, tonight, I'm going to teach you a very valuable trick, it's one of the basics to demons like myself, but to humans it's considered quite the feat."**

Naruto nodded, sitting cross-legged in front of the cage, the water having long since vanished. Another chjange is that instead of resembling a crumbling sewer, the cage had taken on the definite appearance of a temple or palace, drapes and lanterns hanging from the walls and ceilings.Kyuubi had reassured the brat that it was because his mind was developing, and that his dreamscape was changing as a result, and Naruto, ever

**"The most valuable aspect a thief can have is not a sharp mind nor sharp reflexes, though both are valuable, don't mistake me."** the demon assured the blonde, **"No, what a thief values most of all, is stealth."**

The Demon snorted, his snout wrinkling in distaste.

**"Unfortunately, most shinobi can sense a person moving from over a mile away, and demons are much better than that."**

He raised a claw up, as one would a finger,** "Therefore, one of the best ways to avoid being detected, is to suppress your aura."**

Naruto cocked his head, "That's the spiritual part of chakra, isn't it?"

Kyuubi grinned, his lessons we're rubbing off on the boy.

**"Very good, and yes, to suppress your aura, one of the best methods is to meditate, preferably under a waterfall, though sitting in a river can help too, especially for a novice like yourself. Remember kit, chakra is the result of mixing your physical energy, or ki, with your aura, or spirit.**

He sighed softly, causing the boy's hair to ruffle.

"**However, while it is true that my presence in your body has no doubt boosted your stamina, and thus your physical tolerance levels, your aura is still that of a normal child, and it is this that causes your chakra to be in such disarray. Therefore, it is important that we refine your aura so that your chakra will be in a more…manageable state."**

Naruto winced, one did not spend time communing with ones inner demon without picking up on a few things. Thus whenever the Kitsune paused, Naruto knew it was because the Demon was about to add something rather unpleasant to his training regiment.

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Maito Gai, resident Taijutsu specialist, self-proclaimed beautiful blue beast and resident head-case of the Konoha jounin, was known for his, bizarre, training methods. It was not uncommon to see the man walking around the village on his hands, or attempting to lift boulders with his feet, all in the name of his flames of youth.

However, even he had never had the nerve to sit in a river, stripped to his undergarments, in the early hours of the morning, in mid spring.

More the fool him, it was actually quite invigorating.

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Naruto would spend his mornings meditating in the river, trying to increase his aura through the use of the cold, constant flow of the rivers current, whilst at the same time trying to keep certain lower extremities from turning into rather inappropriately shaped popsicles.

Several times he made as if to get out of the water, only to be admonished by his tenant for his lack of resistance.

"**There is no progress without exertion, training is normally unpleasant at first, but the harder you train, the greater the rewards."**

At that moment, Naruto woiuld have accepoted thermal underwear as a reward even if it came with a bulls-eye over the lower extremities.

For a whole month, this regime continued: early morning meditation in the river, followed by chakra control exercises and rigourous physical training. It was quite common for Naruto to be so drained that when he awoke the next morning, his muscles were stiff, and more often than not he woke up to be coevered by a furry blanket, as the Foxes kept him warm after passing out in the midst of training.

Finally, two months after the training began, the time came for a little test.

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Hatake Kakashi, the infamous copy-nin, master of lame excuses, and definite pervert, was strolling through Konoha, with one of his infamous little orange books of soft-core smut, when he abruptly sneezed.

'Hmm? Someone must be talking about me…probably Gai.'

Sighing the jounin looked back at his precious book, eager to return to the tale about the ninja who infiltrated the daimyo's harem, only to freeze in horror.

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The scream echoed around Konoha, causing many to wince, wondering what poor victim had the 'pleasure' of being the guest of Morino Ibiki today.

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Sandaime Sarutobi tucked his pipe under his robes as he entered the hospital, wondering what the devil had happened.

The doctors said Kakashi, who was reputed to be the epitome of calm, had suffered a fainting spell. Normally the hokage would brush this off as the result of reading in the heat, but the medic-nins said that the poor jounin had a look of absolute horror on his face…what was visible beneath the mask anyway.

"How is he doctor?" the elder Nin asked, looking over Kakashi's still twitching form.

The doctor, looking up from his notes, smiled and said, "He'll be fine, just a case of shock; he'll be up and about in a few days."

Sarutobi sighed in relief and looked over the grey haired jounin, whose face still looked decidedly pale.

"What do you think brought this on?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow as the doctor, unsuccessfully, tried to suppress a chuckle, before holding up a book.

"We're not entirely sure, but we found this being clutched in his hands, in a vice grip."

Sarutobi's brow furrowed as he took the book from the doctor, as he looked over the cover, his eyes bugged out at the title:

'Yami Choco: uncut version.'

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Naruto was giggling with excitement. Not only had he swiped the book right from under the jounin's nose, he'd pulled off a prank that even Kyuubi found amusing in the process.

Looking down at the book, the four year old raised an eyebrow at the title.

"Icha-Icha Paradise…wonder what it's about?"

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Kyuubi didn't say anything to the boy; compared to the stuff demons could write, this was a bedtime story, plus it would make the second thing a youko learned: the fine art of seduction, a bit easier to explain when the boy reached his teens.

As such, he let the little orange book corrupt his charges mind ever so slightly, already preparing to answer all the boy's intircate little questions concerning Human erotica.

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Later that day, after a rather embarrasing lecture from the Kyuubi Naruto received a knock on the door.

Putting his book down cautiously, so as not to lose his page, the boy approached the door like it was an animal.

The rent wasn't due anytime soon, and he never received visitors.

Looking through the keyhole revealed a postal shinobi, holding a letter.

"Uzumaki Naruto?" he asked, when the boy nodded, he handed the letter to him.

"Have a nice day sir!" the Nin said, already moving off to the next delivery.

Naruto shut the door, locked it, and then moved back to his chair, opening the letter.

He ran his eyes over it a few times, but as a result of all the big woirds, he had a hard time understanding what the letter meant. as such, he resolved to ask Kyuubi during their night-time session.

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**"That is an acceptance letter, apparently you've been accepted at the Shinobi academy next year." **Kyuubi explained after reading over the letter.

**'Not that any four year old could understand this jargon,' **the fox hissed mentally, **'none without any parents or guardians that is.'**

Out loud he nodded his head, smirking in a way only foxes could accomplish, something that inspired fear and desire at the same time.

**"This is a mixed blessing. True, you could further develop your skills if you became a ninja…but then you would be under the direct scrutiny of the ningens' council…and I doubt they'd give you an easy run."**

Naruto nodded his head, though he didn't understand half the things that were being said.

The demonic kitsune sat in thought for a minute, his massive tails waving at his side almost lazily.

**"Perhaps it will work out, if you don't go, it may raise some suspicion…and some shinobi skills would come in handy if you plan to leave this vermin infested dung heap of a village."**

He frowned, **"Though you'll need to train your mind a bit. Shinobi are sharp, for humans, you can't let your guard down around them."**

Naruto looked up at the youko in resolve, an unusual expression to see on a child's face, and nodded.

"What do you want me to do, Tou-san?"

Kyuubi froze at this, looking over at the boy in wonder.

**"What did you call me, boy?"**

Naruto looked up at the fox, worried he'd insulted him without meaning to.

"Tou-san…can I call you that?"

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The Kyuubi stared down at the small, blonde figure he'd been guiding and realized that, regardless of blood, regardless of species, this child was as much his as the litter he and Kyoko hoped to rear. His oath to his late mate non-withstanding, the Kitsune felt his own resolve solidifying.

Reverently, he lowered his head until his muzzle was within reach of the boy's small hands and nodded, eyes warm.

**"Yes kit…you can."**

Naruto's eyes widened and he ran forwards, hands grabbing at the fur on the fox's muzzle and sobbing.

"Tou-san! Tou-san!" he cried, rubbing his face into the fur, as the red, gentle, chakra, enveloped him, carrying him into one of the Kyuubi's childhood memories, when the great beast was no more than a kit himself, nestled between his mothers paws, his father standing near, watching over them.

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Over the next couple of weeks, several things began disappearing from the village.

The shinobi library reported a number of stolen textbooks, each ranging from the most basic of techniques, to theoretical studies and strategies. The librarian, a Mrs. Haruno received a strict reprimanding for the loss of said books, and was even threatened with the loss of her job. This later came to pass when she apparently 'lost' several important scrolls that the Hokage himself had entrusted to the library, containing his training methods from when he'd instructed a genin team.

Maito Gai would later complain that the store run by Mr. Haruno had purposely lost his custom training weights and made a tremendous spectacle of himself, until an ANBU squadron carted him off. Later that day, Hatake Kakashi would also have to be escorted from the store whilst sedated, when it appeared that Mr. Haruno had forgotten to order his precious 'Icha-Icha Violence' novel, and instead had subscribed Kakashi to a years worth of 'Yami Choco; uncut version.'

However, the biggest mishap happened when ANBU captain, Uchiha Itachi, stormed out of Haruno's store, or the remains of it anyway, when he discovered his specially ordered pocky had been 'lost'. The Haruno's received a lot of skepticism, and even a warning from the Hokage to pull their act together, as he wouldn't be able to control anymore outbursts, especially from Itachi, who seemed to be in an extremely bad mood, for some reason.

One Morino Ibiki later found that one of his trench coats was missing, as well as one of his old notebooks on the human psyche, the book would turn up later on that day in the man's own pocket, along with a slightly lighter wallet.

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Months passed, the seasons changed, and at the start of the academic year, Umino Iruka, chunin instructor at the academy, was looking forward to the start of another year of fun and education.

He really needed better medication.

"I hear the demon brat is joining us this year." A teacher muttered to his colleagues, "Any bets on who's got him?"

Mizuki chuckled and pulled a bill out of his wallet, "fifty on Raijuta. " pointing to a massive chunin with a short temper.

"I raise ya twenty, on Moro." The man replied, pointing to one of the strictest instructors in the school, with a penchant for being mildly schizophrenic.

At that moment, the hokage entered, holding out the student rosters.

Iruka looked over the list, his eyes stopping on a name somewhere in the middle.

Uzumaki Naruto.

Iruka made a mental note to visit the pharmacist later, he definitely needed to get that medication.

* * *

Soooo...'cha think?

For those wondering what Yami Choco is, ask away, though anyone with a basic grasp of japanese and magazine titles could probably figure it out.

R&R!


	3. Chapter 3

For all those who reviewed me asking what the hell 'Yami Choco' was it's simply me rewritting 'Dark Chocolate' in japanese. Those who know what I'm on aboput know which magazine I'm refering to, and no, I DON'T read it, I'm merely using it for comedic purposes.

That said, the Harem pairings are still open for debate, but I'm afraid that Haku won't be among them, for story reasons, she's been paired with someone else.

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Chapter three

Naruto, dressed in a modified trench coat, the sleeves removed, over a standard black t-shirt, shinobi leggings and black sandals. He yawned as he entered the class, his lower face covered with a red face mask, similar to those sported by Kakashi.

The back of his trench coat bore the kanji for 'Youko' on his back, drawing quite a few startled looks as he'd walked through the halls, light glinting off the arm bracers he wore, decorated with foxes.

The class was full of chattering students; one boy was showing off his puppy to a rather shy looking girl with white eyes, another was sharing a bag of chips with a rather sleepy looking kid with a ponytail. Several girls were drooling in the general direction of a raven-haired boy with a brooding face; in fact, a fight had broken out between a blonde girl and a pink haired one over the last seat next to the boy.

'If it wasn't for her scent, I'd have sworn she was a boy.' Naruto muttered, lip curling at the sight of the pink haired girl's oversized forehead.

Deciding to settle the argument in his own personal way, he plopped himself down on the seat next to the boy while the gorl's were occupied with ripping each other's hair out.

Looking at his desk mate the blonde snorted.

"A bit noisy in here, isn't it?"

When the boy looked at him he held out his hand.

"Uzumaki Naruto, and you?"

The boy looked at the hand, took it and replied, "Uchiha Sasuke." emphasizing the 'Uchiha' part.

Naruto nodded, then tilted his head towards the scuffling girls, "Your fans I take it?" as the Uchiha shuddered he nodded.

"Thought so, you'd think they'd have better things to do, like, oh I don't know…study?"

He winced as the pink one landed a right hook on the blonde, "Ouch…are we sure that one's a girl? Could be a cross-dresser…"

Sasuke's eyes widened as he looked at the victorious Sakura, who blew him a kiss.

The Uchiha shivered and quickly looked away.

Sakura however, quickly noticed the person occupying the seat she'd just fought Ino for, the last seat near Sasuke, HER seat, and didn't like it.

"Excuse me, that's my seat you're sitting in." she said, tapping the boy on the shoulder.

Naruto looked around, a bored expression on his face.

"Do you mind?" he said, frowning, "Sasuke and I are talking about something, if you have something to say, it can wait until afterwards."

Sakura swelled up in anger, whilst Inner Sakura yelled expletives at the masked blonde.

"Who the hell are you? Get away from my Sasuke-kun!" she screamed eyes blazing.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, eyes retaining their bored expression. If the girl had the skill and talent to read into his expressions however, she'd know she was about to be puplicly humiliated.

"A real lady would have introduced herself before demanding someone's name." Naruto said calmly, causing the girl to sputter in shocked rage. He turned his head slightly to look between the girl and an smirking Sasuke.

"And what do you mean by 'your' Sasuke-kun? Does he have your name on his ass or something?"

Sakura let out a choked squeak as she flushed scarlet, as the guys in class, minus Sasuke, who looked appalled and one near the window, wearing sunglasses, burst out laughing like there was no tomorrow.

"From your answer I'd say he belongs to you as much as I do, and trust me, I'm no one's plaything."

He turned around to face the front, "So I suggest you keep your lewd fantasies to yourself."

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Sakura, embarrassed and angry, turned on her heel and huffed over to the group of girls in the back, all of which were shooting death glares at the blonde.

It was the first time in history that someone had resisted the 'Sasuke-fanclub's' patented 'Shriek tactic', normally they got out of the way and did whatever the hell they were told, this one would need to be watched carefully.

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Looking over at Sasuke, apparently unaware of the glares boring into his back, Naruto nodded.

"If you call on their bluffs, you can usually drive them off, besides, those types usually think looks can make up for a lack of brains."

He looked over his shoulder at a simmering Sakura, "If that skull of hers isn't because of her brain, then she really is an airhead."

Sasuke snorted, and, for the first time, cracked a small smile, causing many of the girls to swoon, and others to try and listen in on the conversation.

At that moment, the door opened and admitted Umino Iruka.

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"Alright people, settle down." He said, setting his papers down.

When the noise refused to settle he initiated something that would later be referred to as 'secret teacher technique: giant evil head jutsu.'

"QUIET!"

The resulting silence was filled with the chirping of crickets and the occasional cough.

"My name is Umino Iruka, I'm your instructor here at the academy, if you have any problems, feel free to ask me anything, though I can't guarantee I can help with EVERYTHING."

When the children didn't answer he nodded, turning to the blackboard.

"Our first lesson will be the history of the village and the other shinobi nations."

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Throughout the lesson, Iruka kept stealing glances at the 'Kyuubi brat', wondering why he was being so quiet. True, he was glad the kid wasn't trying to disrupt the class, but he at least expected him to cause a little trouble.

'I mean, sure he can't be as bad as all the rumours say, but if we make it through the first class wiothout so much as a light warning I'll start to think I've got the wrong kid.'

However, by looking over his shoulder at the blonde, the Chunin noticed that rather than paying attention to the lecture, the boy seemed to be reading from a book, giggling softly so as not to draw attention to himself.

Glad that the boy WAS apparently human enough to make mistakes, Iruka cleared his throat.

"Would you care to read that out loud Naruto?" Iruka asked, a small smirk crossing his features, as the students shook themselves from their daze to look at the teen in interest.

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Naruto stood up, his mask hiding the fox like grin that covered his face and read:

"Kagemaru couldn't believe his fortune as the denizens of the daimyo's private quarters paraded before his eyes, a veritable wall of silky thighs, slender waists and curvaceous-"

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"Stop!" Iruka choked, face redder than a steamed tomato in the desert, desperate to save what was left of his pupils' 'fragile little minds'.

A number of the boys had burst out laughing again; the Inuzuka boy actually rolling on the ground, holding his sides, even Sasuke was smirking.

Looking at Naruto, Iruka could practically feel the leer the boy was giving him, it was like a giant tooth smile was hovering at the back of his eyes, and for some reason, he felt himself heating up.

Naruto chuckled as he marked his page, before looking back up at the mortified Chunin and asking quite cheerfully, "Shall I read on Sensei? The next few paragraphs are a little…graphic."

Iruka swore he could see a distinct, fox-like glint in the boy's eyes, as the Inuzuka boy started a catcall to continue, which was quickly taken up by the other males, with the exception of Aburame Shino, who was as stoic as ever, and Nara Shikamaru, who was fast asleep.

"NO!" the teacher yelped, before gathering his wits, coughing into his fist to rgain his composure.

"No err…that's fine Naruto…you can sit down now."

Naruto did so, though Iruka could still feel the leer against the back of his head.

'The boy may not be a demon...but he's definitely not one to cross.' the Chunin muttered, he winced slightly.

'And why the hell do I feel like taking a cold shower?!'

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Sasuke leaned over to the blonde and asked, "Where'd you get that book?" though it looked like his lips hadn't moved.

Naruto grinned though his mask hid it.

"Picked it up off the street, maybe I'll lend it to you?"

Sasuke flushed but hid it with the ease of long practice.

"Maybe later." He said, grinning back at the blonde.

"Preferably somewhere that won't cause the teacher to faint."

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Unbeknownst to Naruto, the girls in the class had formed a temporary truce and banded together under a new slogan:

'Get the Hentai-freak away from Sasuke-kun!'

All but a shy, white-eyed girl, whose face was an even brighter shade of red than Iruka's, not being used to such...language.

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Much to the anger of the girls, Sakura in particular, the blonde perv and Sasuke quickly seemed to become friends, almost overnight. Wherever one was, the other couldn't be too far away, making it impossible for them to get any 'alone-time' with their precious Sasuke-kun.

Even worse though, was that Sasuke-kun seemed to be enjoying his company! One reliable source revealed that they were snickering together after someone set off coloured smoke bombs in the teachers lounge, causing many to exit a rather amusing shade of yellow.

What truly horrified them though, was that the formerly reclusive teen seemed to only respond to his blonde compatriot when they weren't disturbed, the moment one of the bishounen's fans approached, he automatically went into 'brood-mode', which while still undeniably sexy, was fast loosing it's draw appeal as 'Happy-sasuke' and 'Laughing-Sasuke' made more appearances.

To add insult to injury, the blonde seemed to be craftier than the foxes he bore on his clothes, as every attempt to corner him resulted in dead ends and, quite recently, embarrassing traps.

An example of which would be the tiger trap filled with skunks, or the exploding garbage bags, not to mention the embarrassing paint episode. Yamanaka Ino couldn't show her face for a week due to the myriad of colours that had splattered onto her precious golden locks.

And throughout out all, the brat continued to read that perverted book of his, giggling like a child on a sugar rush, apparently unaware of the growing animosity that his female classmates harboured for him.

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Naruto was quite enjoying his new hobby, so far he'd seen more pantyshot's than any boy his own age could even dream of, and the challenge of devising counter traps for the girls had far outpaced his previouse habit of simply walking out of them unscathed.

He let off a giggle as he sat on a flagpole, reading his book, while a distraught classmate tried to keep her skirt from falling over her head, as she swung in the cnfines of her own trap.

'Hmmm' the blonde thought as he walked down the pole, eyeing the struggling Ino analytically.

"Black lace? How risque."

He continued down the pole heading for the classroom, leaving the embarresed kunoichi to try and die from embarrasment.

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Iruka, still slightly yellow from the prank performed a week ago, had just finished grading the tests for the last exam. According to this, the Kyuubi brat wasn't the simpleton everyone took him for, scoring almost as high as the Uchiha prodigy.

Now, Iruka was many things, but fickle he was not, and he knew that there'd be problems if word of this got out, so he quickly made a copy of the boy's paper and stashed it away for future reference, namely the Hokage.

At that moment, Mizuki entered the classroom, his once silver hair now a sickly yellow, seeing as he'd been the true target for the prank. The chunin had vowed to track the culprit down and gut him like a fish, his hair being more precious to him than anything, and his inability to find a single clue was causing the man to become testy.

"Are those results finished yet, Iruka-san?" he asked, moving over to the scarred chunin. Iruka nodded and handed the sheets over, smiling lightly.

"The students did fairly well considering this was a pop-quiz." He said, a small smile on his face.

Mizuki gave him one that didn't quite match his eyes, and then turned on his heel.

Iruka sighed as he watched his colleague go, before heading over to the Hokage's office to deliver the copy of the exam.

'It's not that I don't trust Mizuki.' the man muttered, 'It's just considering how emotional he is right now...'

Not even Iruka could convince himself to believe his won crap, he just wasn't the lieing type.

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Naruto yawned in boredom, he hadn't done anything remotely exciting in a week, the smoke bomb prank had been less than thrilling, since it seemed even shinobi couldn't get started without their daily coffee intake.

Slowly but surely, Naruto was taking on more and more of the Youko-frame of thought. Stealing and pranks were one thing, but above all else, youko were extremely fond of fresh challenges, such as riddles, or complex traps, preferably those with a prize at the end. However, there were nothing but Chunin to pick on at the academy, since his fellow genin were off limits, unless you counted the girls' ridiculous attempts at sabotage, but then, he made certain that he was never out of reach of an escape route.

Add to that the fact that the majority of the village's Jounin were currently off on missions and you weren't left with many high-ranking targets.

'Man...there's got to be someone around here that would be worth taking a crack at...' he muttred, looking up at the monument as he walked past, before stopping in the middle of the street.

It had hit him like a tonne of bricks, there was one person from which he'd never even dreamed of stealing from, someone that provided not only the greatest challenge to any who crossed his path, but no doubt had extremely valuable treasures stored away in his private quarters:

The Hokage.

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It was late at night, and the Sandaime was currently going over the mountain of paper work that seemed to grow every time he took his eyes off it. Sometimes he wondered if Jiraiya had placed an elaborate genjutsu over his desk as part of his many attempts to prove he was better than Orochimaru. No matter what though, the council still saw fit to lump everything on him, from bills to wage slips, everything needed the old man's personal john hancock before it could become legal.

'Doesn't this amount to elder abuse?' he whimpered mentally, seeing another set of bills materialize to his right, which he could have sworn was blissfully bare a moment ago.

A shadow flitted across the room, causing the candle to flicker.

Sarutoibi closed his eyes, tthanking whichever deity responsible for this distraction, which may, regrettably, destroy the paperwork.

He stood up, slowly, trying to draw out the moment as long as possible, and tipped his Hokage hat.

"While I must congratulate you for not only infiltrating the tower without alerting the guards, plus the fact that you actually entered this chamber without me sensing you," he paused for effect as he eyed the room, "You're still far to inexperienced to be attempting an attack on my person."

"This isn't a challenge, Sandaime-sama…" a voice called out, as what appeared to be a fox masked ANBU stepped out of the shadows.

"Not one on your life at least, rather, I wanted your undivided attention regarding a jutsu I just developed."

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow, the voice had a familiar ring to it, he just couldn't place it.

"Is that you, Orochimaru?" he asked, before the shinobi made a seal.

"Oiroke no jutsu!"

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The one condolence to the Sandaime, as he lay in a pile of his own blood, was that the projectile nosebleed had caused him to send most of the damn paperwork into the gutter.

As he lay there, trying to come to his senses, his desk was slowly, almost mockingly, being covered in more files and legal documents, as if to spite the poor man.

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Naruto chuckled to himself as he pulled the scroll of seals through the window of his apartment; he had hit the mother lode with that one! If what he guessed was right, then this scroll possessed just the thing to make life in Konoha a living nightmare for certain people.

'Heck, I may even release Tou-san just for the fun of it!' he thought darkly, envisioning the mighty Youko stamping on some of his past tormentors, whilst he rode bareback on his head. He winced suddenly, as he realized it would take a phenomenal amount of chakra to break the shinnigami's seal.

That, and he'd probably die in the process.

**Do not even think of it kit, I would never permit it in the first place. **Kyuubi warned in a tone which brooked no argument.

Naruto sighed and looked over the scroll.

'At the very least, I can learn a few new tricks from this oversized toilet roll.'

He smirked, remembering the fake scroll he'd left in the Hokage's office, wondering when the old man would discover it.

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Sasuke was walking down the street of the Uchiha district, having just finished training to impress his brother and parents. He hoped his mother had prepared a good meal for dinner as he ran up to the house.

'Wait till I tell Tou-san about the test today!' he said, as he opened the door to the house.

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Later that evening, Konoha would be rocked by a tremendous scandal, a scandal that would shake its very foundations.

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Naruto's head snapped up suddenly.

He'd been looking over the scroll, busy comiting one of the multitude of jutsus that the Hokage's had listed since the founding of Konoha to memory, when some inexplicable feeling int he back of his head had put him on high alert.

"Sasuke?"

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Now I'm sure you can all guess what's happening to our favourite Uchiha, next xchapter shows how Naruto helps him cope.

No...not like THAT! Get your minds out of the gutter!

Anyway, here are a list of characters that I am willing to include in the Harem, please run your votes as per the norm.

Ino:

Temari:

Tenten:

Any other characters are to be delivered via review, please note that the older Kunoichi won't be eligible until much later, and Kurenai is DEFINTELY out, for manga reasons.

R&R


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter four.

Konoha general hospital was reputed for having one of the best medical teams in all the shinobi villages, whether it be life threatening wounds or simple aroma therapy, they could help you get back on your feet.

Right now, Uchiha Sasuke was undergoing therapy for the brutal massacre of his entire clan, at the hands of his older brother.

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"He shows little signs of improvement, it's as if the shock to his system rendered him mute." The doctor sighed as e closed his file, handing it to the Hokage.

Sarutobi, looking particularly worn out, scowled at the test results. He'd known Itachi was having some sort of emotional issues, but for him to wipe out is entie clan...what had happened to the boy?

"Could Itachi have used THAT jutsu?" he asked, earning a shrug in reply.

Sighing the elder ninja thanked the doctor for his time, and turned on his heel, bumping into someone on his way towards the exit.

"Sorry." The youth muttered, walking past him towards the room the Hokage had just left.

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow, wondering if Kakashi had started a family without him knowing; the blonde had resembled the cycloptic jounin almost to a tee, were it not for the hair.

Deciding to stand back and watch, the Hokage hid around the corner, listening in on the conversation between the youth and the doctor.

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"I'm here to see Uchiha Sasuke, where is he?" the blonde asked, scowling up at the doctor.

Said doctor looked down at the blonde and frowned, apparently unimpressed and on guard.

"We never announced that he was in hospital, how did you know he was here?"

"I'm asking the questions doctor," the blonde replied, blue eyes like flints, "now where is Sasuke?"

The doctor was about to call for orderlies when he froze, eyes widening in horror as an aura of death seemed to swamp over him.

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The killing intent coming off the boy was so staggering that even Sarutobi, who was standing at the end of the hallway, felt it make his blood freeze.

'That is no ordinary child…' he muttered, sweat dripping down his cheek, unchecked.

'Few can focus their killing intent like that, and all are at the jounin level…or higher.'

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"I will not ask you again, doctor." The boy asked, his eyes seemingly becoming even more slit-pupiled and animalistic than when he'd come in.

"Either you tell me where Sasuke is, or I drag you through every room until I find him."

He held up a hand, causing the joints to crack as he twitched his fingers.

The Doctor didn't miss the little bolt's of chakra that leapt off the surface of the youth's skin, like miniature lightning bolts, and almost wet himself, as the blonde stepped forward.

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Sarutobi decided to step in, before the good doctor suffered a cardiac arrest, and cleared his throat.

"What business have you with Sasuke-kun?" he asked, puffing at his pipe, though on the inside he was preparing to whip out a katon kutsu , just incase the 'boy' turned out to be itachi, come back to finnish the job.

The blonde, turned, the killing intent diminishing, but not vanishing completely, like a wolf that was analyzing the situation before pouncing.

"Hokage-sama." He said, bowing slightly, "I'm Sasuke's classmate, I came to see if he was alright."

"Sasuke is recovering from the shock of having his entire clan killed, by one of their own." Sarutobi replied, stating the textbook reply, not quite trusting the blonde.

He watched as the blue eyes widened slightly, indicating surprise, before they narrowed. Even though the red mask kept the rest of his face concealed, the Hokage could tell that the blonde was telling the truth, as Itachi wouldn't have let ANY emotion slip through the disguise.

"Let me see him." the boy demanded.

Looking up at the doctor, the hokage nodded slowly, reassuring him, before guiding the youth to the room.

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Inside, Sasuke sat up in the bed, staring straight ahead, knees up to his chest.

He didn't respond when the door opened, or when it closed. Not even as the footsteps approached his bed.

When he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder he flinched, until a voice cut through the hazy fog that was his mind.

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"You look like shit." Naruto said, smiling behind his mask as he patted the Uchiha on the shoulder.

"What happened, one of the girls jump you in an alleyway?"

When the raven-haired boy didn't respond, Naruto put on a look of mock horror and recoiled slightly.

"Please tell me you weren't raped."

This had the desired effect of causing Sasuke to twitch and take a swipe at him. Chuckling, he moved back, rubbing his arm slightly.

"Thank Kami, I would've lost all respect for you if they had."

Sasuke snorted half-heartedly, eyeing the blonde with red-rimmed eyes.

"My brother…"

"The fossil already told me." Naruto interrupted, pointing over his shoulder at the Hokage and doctor.

Ignoring the outraged choke form the doctor, he continued, placing a hand on his friends shoulder.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry man…but there was nothing you could do…"

"YES THERE WAS!" Sasuke yelled, fists knotting itno his shorts.

"I could have attacked him! I could have slowed him down, but all I did was run!"

He slammed a fist on the bed, "I ran away like a coward, I couldn't even look him in the eyes!"

Clenching the covers between his fingers he chocked, tears falling on his knuckles.

"He told me I wasn't worth killing…that I wouldn't be worth the effort."

"That's two mistakes he's made then." Naruto replied, voice calm, causing the Uchiha to look up.

"First off, he let you live, that's not the sign of a professional killer, or even a crazed lunatic…I think he left you alive for a different reason."

Naruto smirked, eyes relaying his expression to the Uchiha.

"Still, what's done is done, next time you see him, I don't think running away will be on the top of your priorities."

He nodded towards the doorway, holdig out a hand.

"Now, are you gonna sit there all day as they stick pins in you, or are you gonna show the public that Uchiha Sasuke's a survivor?"

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Sasuke looked up at the teen in awe for a moment, then smirked, ignored the offered hand and got out of the bed.

Naruto nodded, "Now there's the Sasuke I know."

He put his arm around his friend's shoulder and led him out the doorway.

"C'mon, I'll treat to ramen at Ichiraku, trust me, it's the best in town."

Walking past the doctor and Hokage, the two moved towards the exit, ignoring the looks form the orderlies and nurses.

By the time they reached it, Sasuke remembered Naruto's words, and looked at him.

"You said Itachi made two mistakes…what was the second?"

Naruto snorted, "He pissed me off, trust me, that is NOT a good thing.

He leered at the Uchiha, almost sinisterly, "Just ask your fan-club."

Sasuke shivered, "I'll pass."

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The hokage stared after the two as they left the hospital.

'An odd pair indeed.' He thought, watching as they conversed, seemingly laughing at something the blonde had just said.

'Sasuke was suffering from shock not to long ago, so out of it not even genjutsu could reach him. Then this youth shows up, and suddenly he's back to normal…'

He exhaled a stream of smoke, looking thoughtful.

"Perhaps this is a good sign…maybe I should check in on Naruto-kun, I haven't seen him in a while."

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Sitting at Ichiraku Ramen, Naruto and Sasuke were putting away their third bowl of the liquid ambrosia that old man Ichiraku and his daughter provided. Naruto actually took his mask off to eat, revealing the scars on his cheeks for the first time in almost a year. Sasuke wondered what they meant, but decided to ignore it.

"You ask me, something's fishy." Naruto said, setting his chopsticks down for a moment.

Sasuke looked up, still chewing on his noodles, and the blonde elaborated.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you tell me that he was an ANBU captain, right?"

Sasuke nodded, though he scowled as he did so.

"ANBU are the village's elite right?" Naruto asked, "I'm pretty sure they wouldn't permit someone with a penchant for going completely bat-shit crazy and killing their entire clan to join…"

He glared into his ramen, "there's more to this than we're being told."

Looking over at Sasuke, Naruto nodded grimly.

"I think your brother found something out…something BIG."

Sasuke frowned, then looked at his ramen, "Even if he did…to kill off the entire clan like that…just to see what he was capable of…"

Naruto frowned as he slurped up the last of the noodles, picking up the bowl.

"The only way we're gonna find out is to ask Itachi face to face, and before we do that, we got to get stronger."

Sasuke looked at Naruto in confusion as he drained the last dregs of the broth from the bowl. When he finished he turned to the Uchiha and grinned.

"What, you think I'm letting you go alone? We're partners buddy, I got your back."

Sasuke looked at the blonde, scoffed, then finished his ramen.

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Sarutobi gazed into his crystal ball in wonder.

He'd never expected the blonde youth from the hospital to be Naruto! True he'd not kept much watch over the boy recently, but he'd not expected so drastic a change.

'Still, he's offered friendship to Sasuke, this could prove beneficial.'

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The next day at school, and all through the passing weeks, Naruto stuck to Sasuke like glue, the two doing what they did best, pranking the unfortunate chunin instructors.

Mizuki awoke from a nap to see his hair in a perm, Raijuta was trapped in a tiger trap, and Moro found himself trying to explain to his angered Female students how he'd mistaken the signs for the toilets.

It seemed no one was safe, two instructors handed ion their resignation slips that day, requesting a transfer to smothing less strenuous, like ANBU squads.

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Iruka eyed his students with caution, like a cornered wolf.

He had a hunch that the perpetrator was targeting him next, since he was the only one not pranked yet.

However, he'd not taken his guard down the entire lesson, and it was nearly time for the bell to go. Unfortunately, the Students all seemed to be sporting little halos despite the fact they were eying him with a frightening type of hunger.

'Maybe tripling the doseage was a bit too much.' he chunin muttered, shaking his head.

As the bell rang he sighed in relief, thinking the day was won.

"See you tomorrow class." He said, watching as they marched off, or in Kiba's case, stampeded, through the door.

As Naruto and Sasuke filed out, followed by the Uchiha's fan club, Iruka finally relaxed and pulled his coffee mug out of the drawer, taking a long sip.

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Iruka spent the rest of the day on the toilet, cursing the man that invented tasteless laxatives with all the words in his arsenal.

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Several years passed, far to quickly for some, namely Naruto, and not fast enough for others, namely the blonde's traumatised victims. The denizens of the school had quickly learned never to cross the boy, lest you incurr the wrath of hisn twisted sense of humour.

Finally though, the time came for the students to undertake the genin exam.

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Naruto walked through the streets, reading his copy of Icha-Icha paradise as he maneuvered through the crowd, subconsciously relieving random villagers of the contents of their wallets as he bumped into them.

Though he still enjoyed taking these small revenges against his tormentors, the blonde felt that Konoha had little else to offer in regards to challenges; the Hokage, the villages champion, had been far to easily defeated with the Oiroke no jutsu…he'd expected more from the old man, and he'd already committed most of the scroll to memory.

'I may not have some so called blood limit.' Naruto thought wryly, 'but since the scroll of seals is pretty much stored within my memory, I've got one hell of an ace up my sleeve.'

He smirked at a group of women that he remembered from his childhood, hurling garbage and stones at him as he walked past.

'This village…is pathetic, a sheep that has grown too fat and complacent.'

Looking up at the monument he snorted, amused.

'Shodai's last living relative left the village, Nidaime had no children, the Sandaime is a pervert, and the fourth…'

Looking up at the image of the man who people referred to as the village's hero, he snorted derisively.

'Yeah, a hero that would use a child as a sacrifice…'

Naruto scowled and moved on, swiping twice as much from the villagers as he moved on.

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"For this exam, you must perform the bunshin no jutsu correctly." Iruka said to the assorted students, who for once, were paying rapt attention.

"Succeed, and you'll join the ranks of Konoha shinobi, as genin."

He waved his hand over the assorted headbands before him, before looking at the youth's a serious expression on his face.

"Fail, and you must repeat the year at the academy."

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Naruto scoffed at this 'test', not impressed in the slightest.

He'd been pulling off the Kage bunshin jutsu since he had stolen the scroll a few years ago, a simple thing like a regular bunshin was hardly going to be a challenge.

One by one he watched as his classmates marched forward, some walking away wearing a headband, others dejectedly leaving the class with their heads bowed.

He was just considering going to sleep, he felt someone's eyes on him.

Turning slowly he saw a dark haired girl with a pale expression looking at him shyly, as if afraid he'd make eye contact. When she caught him looking back she let of a small squeak and looked away, redder than a tomato.

Raising an eyebrow, he tried to picture her face somewhere and came up blank. Shrugging he turned around, only to feel her gaze come on him again.

Nudging Sasuke he nodded over his shoulder.

"That one of 'yours' back there?" he asked, 'yours' being his joke title for one of Sasuke's groupies.

Sasuke looked over his shoulder at the girl, then shook his head.

"Never seen that one before…not following me anyway."

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"Hyuuga Hinata." Iruka called out, as Haruno Sakura marched out of the hall with her Hitai-Ate headband being used as a hair bobble.

The shy girl stood up, indicating she was the next candidate and moved forward.

Suddenly she tripped over the sleeping Shikamaru's foot, causing her to stumble forwards in a fall, had Naruto not caught her.

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"Watch that first step, it's a doozy." He joked, setting her up right, sending a glare at Shikamaru.

"Hey, Captain snooze-alarm, when you're done studying the back of your eyelids you owe someone an apology here.

Shikamaru snorted and rolled over in his sleep, causing the blonde to sigh in exasperation.

"Forgive the shaved sloth there, he's an idiot."

When he noticed how the girl seemed a little red in the face he raised an eyebrow, concern showing hin his eyes.

"You're not hurt are you? You're looking a little flushed."

The girl shook her head so fast it was a blur, and then ran past him without saying a word, entering the classroom and closing the door behind her.

Naruto sweat dropped.

'What the hell?'

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"Naruto, please perform the bunshin technique." Iruka said, eyeing the blonde cautiously, expecting yet another prank to go off at any moment.

Mizuki was eyeing the blonde cautiously as well, watched intently, and fingering a kunai under the table. He'd finaly gotten his hair back to normal, adn was damned if someone was going to mess it up again!

Naruto sighed and made the seal. Abruptly, the room was filled with Naruto copies, some sitting in chairs, others lying on tables, one even reading the infamous orange book, giggling like an idiot.

"Is this enough?" he asked looking at the senseis, thumbing over his shoulder.

Iruka stared at the assorted Naruto copies in awe, nodded dumbly, and handed the boy his headband.

Naruto, rather than putting the thing on, placed it in the pocket of his coat, and walked out.

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Mizuki sighed, thinking they'd gotten through it unscathed.

"Glad he's done with, eh Iruka-san?"

Iruka looked up at his colleague and was about to reply when he saw the jounin's hair, and choked, trying not to laugh.

"What?" Mizuki asked, putting a hand to his precious locks, only to shriek in horror as he found he now sported an Afro.

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Naruto episode preview music plays. 

Naruto: Keh, listen to those hags sneer, if they only knew what I got instore for- eh? isn't that Mizuki?

Mizuki: Naruto! Come with me and I'll tell you a little secret.

Naruto: Gee, follow the creepy looking man into the woods...alone, Sorry, ain't happenin'

Mizuki: Then Die-what the I can't move!

Next time on Cry of the Youko: Naruto get's some payback.

Naruto: Oh I'm going to enjoy this.

Music Ends 

Well? R&R


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter five.

Naruto smirked as he walked out the doors of the academy, sighing contentedly as Mizuki's shrieks echoed throughout the building.

Okay, maybe Mizuki hadn't deserved that little makeover (Yeah right!), but the blonde believed that since he was never willingly setting foot in the academy again, he felt his last prank had to leave a lasting impression on someone, and Mizuki's name had come up in the, admittedly rigged, draw.

Looking around the palyground in apparent dissinterest the masked graduate spotted his peers celebrating their success with their parents, cheers and praises filling the air.

'Guess the unlucky ones left already.' he rationalised, seeing as only half the number of students seemed to be in the immediate vicinity. With a shrugg of his shoulders, the blonde turned on his heel and moved toward the exit, eager to get a head start n plnning his traps for the next day.

As he did though, his sharp vulpine ears detected the conversation between two women who, if he recalled correctly, once pettitoned to have him banned form the academy.

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"That's him, THE kid." one muttered, face twisted into a smug looking smirk, "Looks like he didn't graduate."

The other sneered, tossing her hair slightly as she glared balefully at the blonde not ten feet away.

"Good, could you imagine it if they actually allowed that THING to graduate?"

"SHHH!!!" the first hissed, looking over her shoulder towards the teen, "You want it to hear you?"

The second sneered, waving a hand dismissively.

"What's he gonna do? He's only a civillian, there are Shinobi all over the place right now! Even he wouldn't try anything stupid here!"

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Naruto snorted, amused at the woman's overconfidence.

'Clearly they have no Idea who they're dealing with.'

Stopping in his tracks, the blonde slowly turned on his heel until he was facing the two women, looking them in the eyes eeriely.

When he was certain that they were watching, he slowly moved one hand towards his mask, pulling it down to reveal is bandaged face, letting the tip of a fang poke out over his lip as he smiled at them. The smile slowly changed into a smirk, as he reached into his coat pocket, pulling out his Konoha Hitai-ate. The women froze, looks of shock adorning their features, as the blonde slowly tied the headband on, his smirk having changed into the trademark kitsune leer, showing off his canines quite well.

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Naruto was well aware of the effect the leer could have on a person, which was the reason he kept his face covered most of the time, unfortunately he was so focused on traumatising his past tormentors that he didn't notice the effect he was having on the surrounding populace.

Let's just say a lot of people would be either seeking therapists or seeking out the coldest showers they could find over the next few days. A couple of female teens had already passed out from having caught a passing glance, when they awoke the next morning they wouldn't remember a thing.

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Naruto stood there leering at the women for a few minutes, before turning on his heel and waving at them, from over his shoulder, twirling a kunai in his other hand. As the two stared at his departing back in shocked relief, a crowd of people passed in front of them, blocking their view for a moment.

When it eventually cleared, Naruto had apparently vanished into thin air.

It wasn't until later that same day that the poor women discovered that the contents of their purses had also vansihed, but they never managed to prove that the blonde had been responsible.

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Naruto sighed as he closed the door to his apppartment behind him, looking around the sparsely decorated room with habitual disgust. Kyuubi had decided that it was time for his charge to move on, for a perfectly logical reason: Once word got out that he was an official genin, he could be expecting the villager's making a last ditch attempt on his life before he got too powerful.

The fox doubted that the weekly spending money that Naruto received would cover the costs of one of the newer apartment building constructed for shinobi, which were far away from civillian eyes, but also put him under the direct scrutiny of his shinobi peers. And if the information the blonde had gleaned from Iruka during homeroom had been true, you needed a specially signed permit to build your own home, not to mention land, something he would have a hard time obtaining at his age, Kyuubi or no.

Therefore, it was time for them to utilize their prior covering of the area around Konoha.

During their free time, Kyuubi had Naruto go around taking detailed notes of the surrounding woodland and forests within the village, even going so far as to sneak inside the monument's tunnel system to discover a few unregistered caves which they had used on occasion. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to truly appeal to either of them. There had been one particular forest that had caught the duo's eyes, but it was surrounded by a masive gate, and was under constant guard by chunin and ANBU alike, not exactly hideout material.

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Naruto placed a carrier scroll on the ground, placing his few personal belongings in front of it and made a series of seals. There was a flash of light, and where the belongings were lay a rolled up scroll. he repeated the procedure with his growing horde of treasure, which ranged from swiped cash to stolen undergarments, before pocketing their scrolls.

Turning to look at the scroll of seals, which still lay against the wall collecting dust, Naruto frowned, irritated.

He'd already finished memorizing every jutsu written in the scroll, even the yondaime's shiki fujin seal, bereft of further purpose, he needed to return the scroll, as it was too much of a liability to hold onto it for anylonger.

Naturally the kitsune part of him hated the idea of returning the thing, but it could also understand that it would only be a matter of time before someone noticed that the scroll in the Hokage tower was a fake.

As if to clarify this, a shiver ran up the blonde's spine, alerting him that something big was going on. He cocked his head to the sidfe slightly, smirking as he heard an alarm go off in the distance.

'Speak of the devil...someone stole the fake scroll.'

Shaking his head, the blonde grabbed the real scroll, opened hs window, and leaped out into the night.

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Mizuki, still Afro-fied, darted through the woods, trying to put as much distance between himself and Konoha as he could without breaking the sound barrier. The only thought running through the traitorous chunin's mind was the rewards Orochimaru would grant him for pulling this off.

"Nice night, Mizuki-sensei."

Snapping out of his delusions of grandeur, the silver haired chunin darted around and grabbed one of the shuriken off his back, eyeing the forest around him warily.

"Who's there?" he called out, sensing for enemies.

The voice chuckled, "I love what you've done to your hair it's very…unique."

With that, Naruto stepped out of the shadows, eyes dancing in the moonlight.

Mizuki blinked at the sight of the blonde, then snorted stashing the shuriken away.

"It's only you, Naruto, I thought it was something serious."

He frowned as the genin stepped forwards, not liking that look in the boys eyes.

"Are you here to join me?" he asked, arms out wide, smirking as he felt his bravado creep back.

"Of course you are, why else would you…"

"You know something, Mizuki-sensei?" Naruto asked, locking eyes with the man, silencing him with the same look. "Since I was small, people have hurt me, humiliated me, deprived me of even a moments peace…"

Naruto took another step forward, whilst Mizuki sub-conciously stepped back.

For some reason he couldn't begin to understand, the chunin's instincts were telling him to run, to run like hell, to run and never stop running, anything to get away from the blonde figure that seemed to be drilling a hole through him with his eyes alone.

"Throughout it all, I was called a monster, a demon," Naruto chuckled dryly, "I'm sure you get the idea. The point is, having endured all of this, I often wondered, was I really as bad as that?"

He closed his eyes, much to Mizuki's relief and smiled behind his ever present red mask, looking almost serene.

"I realized, that if they wouldn't accept me…then I'd give them a reason to FEAR me."

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Before Mizuki could react, Naruto's eyes snapped open, their peircing blue gaze apparently drilling into the chunin's own startled orbs. The startled traitor felt his muscles freeze, locking into place as if Rigor mortis had set in despite his still being alive.

He tried to yell out in shock, only for his eyes to widen as his jaws refused to move. He couldn't feel any of his limbs moving, they all felt like they'd been frozen at the joints, it was an struggle to even blink.

Then his eyes widened in horror as he realised that he didn't appear to be breathing either. It was like they had been turneed to stone.

Slowly, almost catlike, the blonde genin slowly made his way towards the terrified man, a dangerous light in his slit-pupiled blue eyes.

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"Shin no Ippo," the blonde muttered as he walked, not breaking eye contact with his prey, "otherwise known as Isukumi no jutsu, a paralysis technique that relies on focusing ones killing intent through eye contact."

He smirked behiund his mask, "I wouldn't be expecting to move again for...say an hour if I were you."

Walking up to the chunin, the blonde snorted derisively as he liberated the scroll from Mizuki's unresisitng person, before looking up at the man in mock pity.

"All this trouble for a fake scroll of seals…you really are pathetic." he mocked, opening the fake scroll to show it was empty, earning a look of confused hatred from the man.

Noticing the look in the man's eyes with little worry the blonde sighed, tossing the scroll to the side where it promptly burst into flame.

"You know, I was actually considering letting bygones be bygones...after all time heals all wounds and all that."

He lashed out with a kick, sending Mizuki tumbling backwards with a strangled yell, before leaping onto the stricken chunin's abused chest.

"But I always thought your face weas familliar, even though I'm certain we never met before the academy..." he noticed the look of fear that shone through the chunin's eyes and grinned, "Ah...I see you know what I'm refferring to."

Reaching up to pull down his mask, the blonde leaned closer until he was practically nose to nose with the terrified chunin, grinning in a very vulpine manner.

"I believe it's time I paid you back for that beating you gave me when I was four…wouldn't you agree?"

If Mizuki could have moved, let alone summoned air into his lungs, he would have screamed as the genin's eyes turned a very sinister shade of red.

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When Iruka made it to the clearing, followed by a squadron of ANBU, it was to find something that would hant his dreams for the next year or so.

Mizuki's lay on his back, legs bent under him. The traitors face, in his final moments, had stretched into a mask of pure, undiluted terror terror, mouth gaping open in a silent scream.

What truly got the the scarred chunin was that it looked as if his former colleague had clawed his own throat open with his bare hands., as they were still close to the wound, covered in blood and what appeared to be skin.

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"Gruesome…isn't it, Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka leapt two feet in the air at the sound of the voice, and spun round to stare in shock at the tree right behind him. Naruto was sitting on a tree root, the scroll of seals at his feet, but this was not Iruka's primary concern. He was far more interested in the fact that one of Mizuki's Shuriken was lodged in his former student's stomach, as well as the various other cuts and scrapes which apparently covered the boy.

"Naruto!" Iruka yelled, dashing over to kneel beside the blonde, wincing at the close up view of the wound.

"Shit! Medic!" he yelled over his shoulder, before looking at the blonde with worry and concern in his eyes, "Naruto, you'll be okay, just sit still for a bit."

The chunin whirled around and glared at the accompanying ANBU squadron, "Where is that damn medic?!"

A chunin wearing a bear mask snorted, turning his head to the side, "I'm not healing him, let him die for all I care."

Iruka looked ready to charge the an, ANBU or not, when he blinked at the sound of soft, mirthless laughter.

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"What's the matter?" Naruto asked, looking straight into the eyesockets of the man's mask, "Scared to come too close? Are you afraid of me?"

When the man didn't reply the blonde smirked, "Or is the big bad ANBU afraid that the Kyuubi may come out to play?"

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The clearing went silent as everyone looked at the boy in shock, causing him to snort, nodding towards the corpse of their target.

"Mizuki liked the sound of his own voice, when I bumped into him here, he must of figured, 'heck, why not bring the demon fox with me'…said as much himself."

The blonde snickered sadistically, causing the ANBU to shiver at the sound. It reminded them WAY too much of Ibiki during one of his 'Ibiki time' sessions.

"Unfortunately for him, I never did like that mouth of his."

He looked the assembled ANBU and chunin in the eyes, stood up, and pulled the shuriken out of his gut, wincing at the pain.

"Now," he muttered, walking up to the bear masked ANBU whilst holding his stomach, "I'm going to let you choose: you can heal me, and we can all go home and sleep, or you can leave me here to rot, you're choice."

Naruto could almost FEEL the smug look on the aNBU's face and raised a finger to it to cut him off befoe he could say anything.

"But just so you know, if I go," he pointed to his stomach, "then the seal goes with me."

He leered up at the shocked ANBU, eyes seeming to glint in the moonlight, "I'm sure you can imagine what THAT might mean."

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The assorted shinobi had frozen at the first mention of the seal dissapearing, the very idea of the sole barrier between them and the Kyuubi vanishing chilling them to the marrow.

"That's right." Naruto's voice called out, dragging each of them out of their own personal nightmare to stare at the smirking blonde, "The big bad Fox would come out," Naruto muttered, running a blue eye over the assembled shinobi smugly, "and I think he might be a bit…peeved, at being imprisoned for so long, wouldn't you agree?"

"You heard Iruka!" The ANBU captain snapped out, far too quickly to be passed off primarily as concern for the injured genin, "Hurry up and patch him up!"

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Naruto smirked behind his mask, as the medics finally left him alone. He'd pulled that off perfectly, not only had he disposed of the fake scroll without being discovered, he'd made it appear that Mizuki was responsible for everything. True, stabbing himself had been a spur of the moment thing, but that was the price of brilliance, sometimes you had to make sacrifices.

'Even a Lizard will sever it's own tail to escape from harm.' he rationalised, 'I suppose I can relate noww.'

He had already been completely healed, both from the efforts of the medics and his own impressive regeneration capabilites, but had been ordered to remain in the hospital for the Hokage to examine him. The blonde scoffed; the old geezer was probably going to check the stability of the seal.

Speak of the devil, Sandaime entered, looking as if he'd been dragged from his bed only a few moments ago, shown in the look of his eyes and the fact he was wearing his red robe back to front.

"Naruto-kun! What we're you thinking, fighting Mizuki like that?!" he said, looking the boy over in concern, wincing at the amount of bandagfes. "You just graduated from the university, what made you think you could beat a chunin?!"

Naruto sighed, shaking his head. He really had nothing against the old man, but ever since he started training he never trusted any of the adults, with the exception of Iruka sensei, who aside from being a little prudish, was generally fun to be around.

"Overconfidence I guess," he muttered, smirking, "but I DID beat him."

"And almost killed yourself in the attempt! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

Sarutobi sat in a chair and sighed, shaking his head wearily, showing his age for the first time since he enterred the room. "Naruto-kun, I know you wish to prove yourself to the villagers, but I don't want you to do something so foolish again."

He looked up at the boy and, to the blonde's shock, there was actual concern for him in the old man's eyes. "I couldn't bear it if something happened to you…not after all you've endured to become a ninja."

The elderly Hokage smiled at the boy, "Congratulations by the way, I knew enrolling you was a good idea."

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At this, Naruto was flummoxed.

Though he'd had his suspicions, the blonde had never anticipated that his silent benefactor was really the Sandaime Hokage himself. He merely assumed that it was standard policy for all children to be enrolled at the academy, hre now saw this as foolishness, as it would completely alienate the civillian populace.

Sarutobi chuckled, enjoying the priceless look on the boy's face, it was better than the time he accidentally walked in on Jiraiya, Tsunade and Orochimaru during a game of strip poker.

"Surprised? Not many people know this Naruto, but when the fourth sealed the Kyuubi in you to protect the village, he meant for you to be seen as a hero." He sighed, shaking his head. "Sadly though, the pain of loss was too great to be forgotten, and the people only saw you as the Kyuubi."

"No shit." Naruto muttered, scowling up at the monument at the fourth's features, "Yondaime must've been stoned or something if he thought it was worth it to sacrifice his life for those bastards."

Sandaime winced at the boys tone, earning an amused snort.

"The truth hurts, doesn't it? Well, I'm not this village's whipping boy anymore, and I can tell you this, if they try anything, they'll wish it really was the Kyuubi that was after them."

Getting out of bed, Naruto walked out, shooting a smile at the old man, trying to put him at ease.

"Relax old man, I'm not about to pull an Itachi…not with Sasuke in the line of fire." He sent a glare at the man, "But I'm not going to let insults just blow bye anymore either."

And with that, the blonde left, leaving a saddened sandaime behind.

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Sitting back in his office, Sarutobi looked up at the pictures that adorned the wall, eyes landing one of a blonde young man with blue eyes. He sighed, shaking his head in shame.

"Arashi…I only hope you can forgive this old fool for letting things get this far."

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The next day, after making sure that he was in perfect health from the night before, Naruto reported back to the academy for team assignments. To his mild pleasure, the fangirls had apparently doubled their ambushes this time, apparently blaming him for not making the cut this year.

He whistled as he watched three of them go flying through the air as a result of their trap backfiring.

'A wooden cannon?' he muttered, staring at the pile of kindling. The blasted thing had exploded due to beign overloaded with gunpwder.

'Where on they find something so outdated? And should I be flattered or worried?"

He calmly turned his head to the side to avoid a blow to the head from a club, tripping the girl up and sending her tumbling into a wall.

'Hn, that's the thirteenth one with frills.' he muttered, turning the page of his book.

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After a thoroughly enjoyable workout, Naruto sauntered into class, still reading his book. Taking his regular seat next to Sasuke he put his feet on the table, nodding his head slightly.

"I miss much?"

Sasuke snorted, hiding a smile behind his usual brooding pose. "Kiba's mutt decided to mark his territory on Ino's new dress, and Shikamaru's currently broken the record for being lazy." He scowled at the genin, who was currently napping right behind them, "How'd a bum like that pass the exam?"

Naruto shrugged, pulled out a pen, and began scribbling on the boys face, a bored expression on his own.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the blonde's antics, "Real mature Naruto." he muttered, smirking.

"Just teaching him a lesson, care to join in?" Naruto replied, offering a pen. Sasuke scoffed and turned to face the front.

Naruto, prank completed, did the same, putting his feet up and reading his little orange book, leaving the still slumbering Shikamaru with several interesting facial paintings, including a massive weiner across his forehead.

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At that moment Sakura walked in, and spying Sasuke, made a beeline for him with a delighted look on her face, which dropped like a ten tonne weight at the sight of the person sitting next to her target. Stopping before Naruto she stood there, hand's on her hips and scowled at him, waiting for her blonde nemesis to notice her.

Said nemesis continued to read his book, pretending that he hadn't noticed the girl as she began to seethe. When he sensed that she was well and truly put out, the blonde looked up at her lazily, arching an eyebrow coyly.

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"Can you be helped?" Naruto asked, giving her a bored look.

Sakura twitched in barely restrained anger and pointed at him with a twitching finger.

"I want to sit with Sasuke-kun! Move over!"

Naruto looked at her for a moment, then went back to his book as if she hadn't said anything.

"No, I don't think I will."

The pink haired girl let out a screech, and was about to clout the blonde genin when Iruka came in, followed by a scowling Ino.

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"Take your seats people, and I'll call out the teams." He said, eying the class carefully, hoping he wouldn't have to resort to his 'evil head' jutsu now that they were grown up.

Sakura sent the blonde a death glare and did as she was told, settling for sitting next to the bane of her existance, as it was the closest she was likely to get to her crush.

Once he was certain they were settled, Iruka looked down at the checklist and cleared his throat.

"Teams are as follows, team one…"

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Naruto blocked it all out, wondering whether or not he'd be on Sasuke's team or not. And while it would make watching his friend's back a hell of a lot easier, he didn't like the idea of Sasuke's sharingan copying any of his moves, intentyionally or otherwise.

If there was one vice to having a kitsue frame oif mind, it was that all fox's were secretive little bastards, who coveted their secrets even more than their treasures.

Fortunately for our hero, the fates were on his side that day.

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"Team Seven: Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura and Tomo." Iruka called out, wincing as the kunoichi let out a screech of joy.

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'Guess that solves that.' Naruto muttered, sending Sasuke a look of pity whilst patting him on the back.

"Tough luck Sasuke, the blonde at least could've served as eye candy, but this one…yeesh."

This comment caused Ino to flush, not expecting such a compliment from the Uchiha's devious friend. Sakura however, snapped at him in irritation.

"And just what do you mean by that?!"

"Other than the fact that when I first saw you, I thought you were a cross-dresser?" Naruto shrugged, "Nothing much."

Sasuke snorted at this, as did a number of other students; whilst Sakura's face went red with anger.

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Iruka finnished calling out the list of teams and smiled, nodding at them all.

"That's all, thank you for your time, your sensei's will be coming to collect you in a few minutes, so please be patient."

Naruto frowned, wondering if he'd missed his name, and raised his hand.

"Iruka sensei, you forgot my name."

The chunin looked up at the teen and shook his head, wincing slightly.

"Sorry Naruto but the students were split into ten teams of three, as the thirty first candidate, we couldn't put you on a team."

"Your kidding, right?" the blonde asked, getting to his feet in a rush, sensing somethi9ng was up. "You mean I'm the only one who isn't getting on a team?"

The blonde shot a giggling Sakura a glare and growled, looking at the resident Uchiha over his shoulder.

"Sasuke you have my pity, stuck on a team with nothing but guys."

"I'm a woman you freak!" Sakura yelled, earning a snort of disbelief from Naruto.

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Iruka rubbed his face, sighing.

He didn't exactly like this situation either, the council, upon hearing of the blonde's success in the exam, had purposely allowed another student to pass, filling in the last available slot. This, coupled with the news of what had happened with Mizuki, had set them firmly against the blonde receiving the genin title.

'Unfortunately for them,' the chunin thought wryly, 'Sandaime-sama is always three stepos ahead of them.'

"Actually Naruto, you're going to be training with someone the Sandaime personally asked to come here, so show some respect."

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Naruto raised an eyebrow at this, ignoring the looks of jealousy that crossed some of his classmate's faces.

'Someone the Sandaime knows? Probably an expert on seals.'

He looked around the classroom, not detecting any foreign auras or scents.

"So where is this guy? Or is he the shy type?".

There was a knock at the door, which Iruka responded to quickly, bpowing slightly in greeting, beforte stepping aside to admit someone. At first they couldn't see anything, then an old woman, shorter even than the sandaime walked in, shooting the group a critical gaze.

"Hmmph, the stock of Konoha shinobi has plummeted if these ones managed to graduate." She shook her head, "Times really must be changing."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, not impressed in the slightest.

"You're kidding me, this old hag is my sensei?"

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The look on Iruka's face was priceless, equal parts embarrassment and shock, wrapped up in pure, un-cultured terror.

The woman looked up at the blonde and Naruto felt Kyuubi twitch in recognition.

"Hmmph, so this is the kid?" She looked him up and down, "Doesn't look like much, probably not worth my time to train."

Naruto bristled at this, before smirking, his eyes flickering mischeviously, "And just what could a shriveled up old hag like you teach me? How to crochet? Basket weaving?" he put a hand to hsi face in mock awe, "The secrets of shuffleboard?"

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Kiba burst out laughing, which was picked up by a few others,as the blonde took a bow, still smirking at the woman. The look of fear was spreading across Iruka's face like a flood, as he tried to get them to stop, whilst stammering apologies.

The old woman merely sighed, shaking her head, before her eyes snapped open, flashing with power. With a simple yell, she sent the startled blonde shinobi flying towards the wall, where he made an indention with his whole body.

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The whole class went deathly silent, save for the sound of falling plaster and settling dust, as the diminutive woman shook her head, muttering.

"I used to be able to make guys like that wet themselves with a simple glance." She chuckled bitterly, "Getting old really sucks."

Turning on her heel, she looked Iruka in the eye and nodded towards the Naruto shaped hole in the wall.

"If the baka survived that, tell him to meet me by the river, I'll be waiting."

Iruka nodded, glad that his student hyad gotten off easy, before opening the door to let the woman out of the class.

"Of course, Genkai-shihan."

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Naruto found himself in front of Kyuubi's kage, holding his head and cursing.

"Okay...THAT hurt…" he muttered, shaking his head to attempt to clear it, "What in the heck IS that old lady?!"

**"Her name is Genkai,"** Kyuubi muttered, catching the youth's attenhtion, **"She is known as a powerful psychic and an expert demon slayer, She is known to have killed more demons than I'd like to admit."**

The youko shivered in anticipation, clearly enjoying this recent development.

**"There is not a demon alive that hasn't heard of her, even I entertained the notion of challenging her once, but she proved hard to find." **The fox shivered again,"T**hat, and she has apparently retired, passed the torch on to her successor, and my wits have not been altered enough to desire a fight with HIM"**

Naruto watched as his Tou-san's fur ruffled at the mere thought and shivered, grinning in anticipation.

'This could be interesting…let's see what the old hag can do.'

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Lo and behold! Naruto's sensei has been revealed!

Were you surprised? R&R!

(Naruto Preview music starts)

Naruto: Damn that hurt! I'm gonna prnk that old hag so hard she'll-!

Genkai: I'll what?

Naruto: Gah! where'd you come from?!

Genkai: Hn, I would have thought your teachers gave you this talk already?

Naruto: Wha-? GAH! Not like that!

Genkai: (Fierce glare) I see you're sharper than most, so you'll know that pranking me isn't a good idea.

Naruto: (shiver) Scary woman...eh? who's that behind the tree?

(Music ends)


	6. Chapter 6

Well now, sorry for the delay, college and all that; But here it is, the next instalment of Naruto's journey!

Chapter six.

"Before we begin, let me make one thing clear." Genkai muttered, as she levelled a stern glare at the blonde before her, "I'm only doing this as a favour to the Sandaime."

The woman snorted, shaking her head, "I normally don't take students on a whim, so if you screw up, you're on your own."

Naruto nodded, rubbing the back of his neck. His little trip through the wall had hurt, but he wasn't about to admit that to the crone's face until he got a proper measure of her.

"Tou-san says you're a demon slayer," the blonde asked, running a sceptical eye over the diminutive reiki master, "Is that true, or am I talking about someone else?"

Genkai cocked an eyebrow, intrigued at the boy's words, "That was my profession at one point," she admitted with a nod, "but I was under the impression that you were an orphan…unless…"

The reiki master looked at the boy with a frown on her face, causing Naruto to feel a slight probing presence in his head; this went on for a few seconds before it vanished as the woman snorted.

"Youko," she muttered, amusement in her aged tones, "they always did have a soft spot for children...I suppose you could do worse for a role model."

Genkai cleared her throat and nodded at him, hands held behind her back as she frowned again, "I'm not going to go into the leaf's ritualistic period of 'getting to know you'," she muttered, wry humour causing the side of her mouth to quirk upwards, "'cause quite frankly I couldn't give a damn."

She gave the blonde a meaningful look; "The old man guilt tripped me into this for teaching that blonde baboon of a Hokage the shiki fuujin technique to protect the village."

The aged sensei spat on the ground in disgust, "I never thought he'd use a child as a sacrifice."

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Naruto twitched at this interesting little tidbit, eyeing the reiki master with interest.

'This old woman taught the shiki fuujin to the Yondaime?' he muttered, impressed despite himself, 'Then perhaps she can tell me how to...'

"I can tell what you're thinking quite easily and the answer is no." Genkai said, causing the teen to look up, startled out of his thoughts.

"Though I COULD release the seal on you," the woman explained, looking deadly serious, "the process would kill both you and the Kyuubi, whilst the resulting backlash of power could very well wipe out everything within a five thousand mile radius."

Naruto shivered as the woman shook her head resignedly, "Even I can't cheat the Shinigami, and I don't intend to try."

The blonde let his body sag at the woman's words, 'Yet another dead end.' he muttered, eyes dropping, 'And here I was thinking we'd finally cracked it.

Genkai let the facts sink into her charge's head for a minute, before clearing her throat to make him look up at her.

"As your 'father' has no doubt told you, I specialize in reiki, or aura attacks."

She waited until she was sure he was listening before continuing, " I suspect you already know this, but Chakra is a combination of ones physical and mental energies." she smirked, "But what most people, even shinobi, don't know is that this mental energy is in fact their spirit, or aura."

Naruto blinked at this, ignoring a smug little grunt from his vulpine adoptive parent as the woman continued with her lecture.

"The use of chakra is how shinobi are capable of bending the elements to their will, but unlike simply focusing on ki or their aura, there are limits to how much chakra you can produce in a human body before the coils become overstressed." The reiki master held up a finger and grinned, "However, by increasing your ki, you are basically increasing your physical strength as well as your stamina, whereas by developing you're aura, you're effectively strengthening your life force, and thus, lengthening your lifespan."

Genkai watched as the boy did the math, smirking as his eyes widened in realisation, "That is why your 'father' and the other bijuu are so strong, they've trained both body and spirit beyond normal limits." She pointed at the blonde, or more accurately his navel, "that is the secret behind Kyuubi's limitless chakra supply, his body and soul have far surpassed the limits set in place by nature."

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Naruto stared at his hands in awe as the woman trailed off, wondering at the possibilities of attaining that level of power himself, before eyeing his 'sensei' critically.

"So what, you're here to teach me how to do the same?"

Genkai laughed at this, "Baka, human bodies aren't as durable as those of a demon, even with my help, you're aura couldn't grow to the level that your chakra would be infinite."

She tapped him on the forehead protector with her finger, causing the blonde to growl and bat her hand away irritably, "I'm here to teach you how to channel your aura as a weapon," she commented before snorting "I doubt it'll be truly difficult, since you've already mastered the ability of hiding it…to an extent."

Naruto raised an eyebrow; "You're saying I'm doing something wrong?"

"Not really," the woman muttered, turning on her heel and walking off slightly, "to shinobi, who track their opponents using chakra, you're practically invisible," she smirked and looked over her shoulder, "but to people like myself and all of demon kind, you're life force is only partially hidden."

Naruto snorted, shaking his head as he stood up, running a hand through his hair, "I'm hardly going to doubt someone even Tou-san has respect for," he muttered, before nodding towards the woman, "so shall when do we start training?"

Genkai humphed, shaking her head "Not here," She muttered sullenly, "I don't trust the people of this village like that Baka-saru Sandaime of yours, so I've gotten permission to train you at my temple back home."

Naruto blinked at the old woman's words, particularly at the word temple, before shaking himself back to attention as she began to walk away, hands behind her back.

"It's a long walk," Genkai muttered, "so don't expect to be back anytime soon."

She turned around eyeing him critically, "I'll be waiting for you at the village gates in an hour, if you have any goodbyes to say, do them in that time, 'cause we leave as soon as you get there."

Naruto nodded and used shunshin no jutsu to vanish in a swirl of leaves, causing Genkai to raise an eyebrow in amusement.

'Show-off.'

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Sasuke eyed the cycloptic jounin before him with trepidation; he didn't trust this guy any further than he suspected he could throw him, for starters, he had shown up a whole three hours later than all the sensei, his face was hidden behind a mask, and he had all the enthusiasm of a sloth, judging from his posture alone.

"I'd advise you against eating anything," Kakashi muttered, eyeing the genin before him with his sole visible eye, "You'd just throw it up later".

"Ne, Sasuke," an amused voice muttered form behind the jounin; "you got stuck with the weirdoes, didn't ya?"

Kakashi spun round to see what appeared to be a blonde, miniature version of himself, Icha-Icha book and all, sitting on the rail beside him, minus the Hitai-ate over his eye.

"And you are?" he asked, ready to attack should he prove to be a threat.

"Uzumaki Naruto," the blonde muttered, jumping off the rail, "Sasuke's friend, just dropping by to tell him I'm gonna be out of town for a while."

Ignoring the look of interest in the Jounin's eye, the blonde walked up to Sasuke, pulling out a familiar orange book and handed it to the Uchiha.

"I finished reading it," he muttered, smirking at the outraged squawks coming from Sakura, "here, hope you enjoy it."

Sasuke smirked and took the book, ignoring the girl's cries for him to burn it, "What about you?" he asked, knowing that Naruto would normally chew off his own leg than surrender his precious porn.

The Uchiha raised an eyebrow as the blonde held up another book, the cover slightly different than the one he now held in his hands. The title read: 'Icha-Icha Violence', and showed the woman from the first cover sending her pursuer soaring with an upper-cut.

"I got the second copy already." Naruto muttered dismissively, seeming to smirk behind his mask, "Maybe I'll lend it to you when I get back."

The two knocked fists, and then to the shock of all present, particularly Kakashi, embraced like brothers.

"See you around, pal." Naruto said, grinning at the Uchiha's team-mates in a very vulpine manner, "Don't let Pinky there hold you back."

Before Sakura could squeal out a reply, the blonde had used shunshin to disappear in a swirl of leaves.

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Kakashi raised an eyebrow, thoroughly intrigued by this interesting turn of events.

'I'd assumed that Sasuke was a typical avenger...all he hinted towards during the meeting was a burning desire to kill Itachi...' he frowned slightly in thought, 'maybe I should look at that file again to be sure...'

With that said, then Jounin reached for his book pouch to read his copy of Icha-Icha violence, firmly believing that all the world's problem were only a few giggles away.

Sasuke and co. would have to carry him to hospital, the reason being he had fainted and fallen from the roof after reading two paragraphs of 'Yami Choco: Authors cut.'

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Since it was sure to be a while before he set foot in Konoha again, Naruto decided to pull out all the stops on his pranking.

And by all the stops, we meant Prank war Armageddon here people.

The Hyuuga compound was painted a shocking pink colour, which apparently caused widespread panic amongst the entire clan as it was done in broad daylight, without a single Hyuuga clan member noticing until a few seconds afterwards. A cat found it's way into the Inuzuka kennels, causing a furious riot that threatened to rip the dog master clan's home down around their ears, it didn't help that said cat belonged to the fire Daimyo's wife, preventing the miffed Inuzuka's from simply chopping it into kibble for their partners. The Akimichi clan had to be treated for shock when they discovered that all the food in their larders was either expired or gone, and the stores and restaurants of Konoha having closed for the day in order to deal with an infestation of rats.

The academy suffered the worst apparently, as the toilets mysteriously exploded, sending waves of water and…stuff, surging down the halls. The fire Daimyo had been visiting at the time as a guest speaker, and was thus quite vexed when the tidal wave washed over him, ruining his silken robes and toupee. Iruka sensei thanked his lucky stars to be off on leave that day, as the enraged Daimyo had taken his anxieties out on the nearest authority figure, which happened to be Raijuta.

Most people had assumed the Daimyo were like all their forefathers, little snots with weak wrists that only cared about money. The fire Daimyo was at least two metres tall and built like a brick shithouse, it took ten men to get him to let go of the poor chunin's neck.

But the real clincher was that the Sandaime's crystal ball seemed to only lock in on the women's onsen, causing the old man to suffer haemorrhage-induced nosebleeds that landed him in the hospital, preventing him from finding the identity of this master prankster.

Needles to say, the blonde had a rather satisfied air about him as he walked down to the gates to meet with his sensei, whistling the entire way as he read his infamous orange book without a care in the world.

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"I trust you're ready?" Genkai muttered, staring at the blonde before her, who seemed to be carrying nothing more than a familiar looking orange book. She blinked at the title, before shooting him an interested look.

"Haven't seen that one before, is that the newest release?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, caught mildly off guard at her familiarity with his choice of reading material, earning an amused snort from the old woman.

"My former apprentice had a copy of it that he stashed at the temple," she explained, grinning at the memory, "didn't want his girlfriend finding it."

"Bet he got some good ideas from it." Naruto snickered, raising both eyebrows in shock as the old woman snorted.

"You've no idea."

Genkai shook her head slightly and looked him over, eyeing the obviously light travelling bag slung over the boy's shoulder.

"I did tell you to travel light," she muttered, pointing at the container, "but is that all you're bringing?"

Naruto put a hand into his coat and pulled out a scroll, "Storage scroll, if I need anything, it's just a hand seal away."

Genkai nodded, impressed at the blonde's train of thought, and then turned around glaring at the trees behind them.

"You may as well come out," she muttered, slightly annoyed, "I know you've been there from the start."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, turned to look in the direction of the woods as a figure slowly came into view.

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Hyuuga Hinata stepped out from behind a tree, looking decidedly nervous under the older woman's scrutiny.

"A-ano…Naruto-kun…" she stuttered, cursing herself for sounding so immature.

Genkai snorted, "I'll be waiting by the gates," she muttered, walking off towards the entrance to Konoha, "finish up and meet me there." She glared at the blonde over her shoulder, "and don't keep me waiting."

Naruto shivered from the force of the glare and watched as his sensei plodded of towards the gates, before turning to regard the shy girl before him.

"Is there something you wanted, Hyuuga-san?" he asked, looking the girl over, blinking as she began to fidget, not meeting his eyes.

'Why is she twiddling her thumbs?" he wondered, 'I heard the Hyuuga were the most prestigious clan in Konoha, the epitome of calm and reserved...why's she so nervous then?'

"Ano…" Hinata muttered after a moment of twiddling her fingers in silence, "I heard…you w-were g-going away…" she swallowed, "So I...wanted to…"

"See me off?" Naruto cut in, guessing correctly and was rewarded as the girl flushed and lowered her head.

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'She's cute when she does that.' He thought, taking in the girl's features and comparing them to his memories from the academy days. 'And she's not one of those stalker freaks Sasuke has to deal with.' He shivered slightly, as he watched her twiddle her fingers, 'and did I mention the cute part? If I had a tail, it'd be wagging right now.'

Shaking himself out of his thoughts the blonde smiled at the girl, nodding in thanks.

"I appreciate the sentiment Hyuuga-san," He said, before turning on his heel and waving, "even if you really could care less about whether I left or not."

Hinata trembled slightly and looked away, "A-ano…I d-do care…"

Naruto stopped, looking over his shoulder in interest as the girl's voice rose slightly.

"I…I've looked up t-to you since we were in t-the academy." the shy Hyuuga admitted, flushing, "You always s-seemed s-so calm, n-no matter what…"

Hinata blushed deeper and lowered her head, her courage beginning to wane in the face of the blonde's silence.

"I... respected you," she semi-whispered, "s-so when I heard y-you w-were leaving…I..."

The Hyuuga stopped, blinking as she heard the boy's footsteps approach. The startled girl managed to look up just in time for Naruto to gently cup her chin, tugging his mask down with his other hand.

"N-naruto-ku-!"

The girl's cry of surprise was cut off, her eyes widening as the blonde captured her lips with his own.

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Time stood still, and the ground seem to spin as the shy Hyuuga felt her legs grow weak around the knees. She kept telling herself it was all a dream, and that she'd wake up to find herself in her bed at the Hyuuga mansion. But the moment did not pass, and the blonde was still there, lips pressed gently yet firmly against her own.

To the casual observer the kiss only lasted only a few seconds; to the Hyuuga heiress those seconds felt like minutes, and those minutes like hours, and those hours…

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Suffice to say the girl would have been quite content if time stopped right there; but alas, such things must come to an end.

Slowly, almost tauntingly, Naruto broke away from the flushed girl's lips, and leaned in towards her ear.

"That's just the prelude" he whispered, voice lined with enough suggestive tones to satisfy even the most devout Icha-Icha fan, "when I get back…we'll continue...that's a promise."

Hinata felt herself flush scarlet at the thought, as the blonde continued, hardly daring to believe this was real.

"So until then, grow strong..." Naruto whispered, leaning in close to her ear for the last bit.

"I'll be waiting for you."

And with that, the blonde replaced his mask and turned on his heels, not noticing the poor kunoichi fall backwards in a dead faint.

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Genkai snorted as the boy showed up, a wry look on her face.

"Took you long enough," she muttered, raising an eyebrow, "What, you had to go all the way?"

Naruto gave her one of his fox-like grins, "Now where's the fun in that?" he taunted, "A little foreplay can set the mood far better than a quick romp through the grass."

Genkai frowned, though there was a hint humour in her eyes, "That's a fox's answer if I ever heard one."

Naruto snorted, "Did you expect anything less?"

And with that, the two set of on their journey, leaving a thoroughly disorganised Konoha in their wake.

Hyuuga Hiashi would later be quite surprised to discover that his eldest daughter was virtually throwing herself into her Jyuken training, almost as if she was possessed by the spirits of her long dead ancestors. It took considerable effort to get her to stop training long enough to eat, and whenever she wasn't training, she was walking around as if in a daze.

'If I didn't know any better,' Hiashi muttered, eyeing her as she sat staring out at the stars, 'I'd say she was...'

He shook himself and went back to his work, 'NAH! Couldn't be!'

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Oh but it CAN Hiashi...it most CERTAINLY can...

Next time on Naruto Gaiden;

(Preview music starts)

Genkai: Hn, you're even worse than the other Dimwit I had, can't last half a second.

Naruto: How can anyone do this you old HAG?!

Genkai: Hn, this old Hag'll outlive you by a good century.

Naruto: Next time on Cry of the Youko, Genkai's hellish training!

Genkai: We haven't even started the real training yet.

(preview music ends)

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Well? You like? R&R!


	7. Chapter 7

_Okay little heads up here; Has anyone seen a car in wither the manga or anime of Naruto? Boats yes, but no cars or trains, therefore I'm using authors lib to make it appear as if Shinobi have never even HEARD of them._

_Also, regarding the kekkei Genkai challenge, that's officially over, and I'm sorry to say it ISN'T Dead Bone Pulse (Shikotsumyaku_)_, but due to the OBVIOUS (29!) entries asking about it, I WILL be writing a fic where he gets it...boy, wouldn't Kimmimaro be interested if he knew he had a relative left?_

_-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

Chapter seven

Naruto winced as a particularly loud noise blared through the air, he'd never imagined that life outside the Shinobi nations would be so…noisy!

'What did the old Hag call it again?' he wondered, glaring at the offending object, 'A car?'

Shrugging, the blonde fell in step slightly behind his diminutive sensei, apparently reading his book, when in actuality; he was taking in the scenery.

After passing through a rather disturbing tunnel jutsu, which Genkai refused to elaborate on, they had arrived in the middle of what appeared to be a park, empty save for the foul smelling old man who watched them leave, all the while muttering something about 'Millenium shrimp.'

Genkai had flagged down a bright orange, Naruto shivered at the colour, vehicle which he later learned was called a taxi, and they had spent the last two hours driving to to the hills outside the massive city.

They had gotten out a few minutes ago, Genkai claiming they could walk the rest of the way; Naruto was glad for that decision, the taxi had been comfortable, but his heightened sense of smell hadn't been ready for the smell of barely hidden sweat and the scent of chemicals coming from the odd little tree hanging from the rear view mirror.

Out here in the fresh air though, those same senses were in heaven.

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'Wow,' Naruto muttered, feeling the wind blow over him, 'Just...wow.'

The blondes wonder was well placed, the path to Genkai's temple was surrounded on all sides by dense forrest, and the steps were set into the side of a small mountain, and according o the diminutive master, the property stretched down to the sea shore.

Now Naruto, being a Konoha born ninja, was no stranger to forests, heck, he spent more time in them as a child than most of the other children and villagers, for reasons best left unsaid.

But these woods were different, in more ways than one; every tree, every leaf, every stone on the path before him, seemed to call ou to him silently, like a veritable orchestra of silent voices, whispering in the back of his skull.

It wasn't an unpleasant feeling, in fact, the genin felt his spine shiver slightly at the rush that seemed to fill him. Pulling down his mask and closing his eyes, the blonde genin took in a deeper breath, a genuine smile appearing on his bandaged face.

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Genkai snorted as she took in her new apprentices almost orgasmic expression, the kid looked like he was in heaven, that or on really good shit.

'Kurama had the same look on his face the first time he came here' she muttered wryly, wishing she had a camera, 'must be a fox thing.'

Clearing her throat to gain the blonde's attention, she smirked; "While I'm all for the embracment of nature, would you mind calming down before you make a mess?" she pointed at the teens crotch, "You can mess around all you want in the bathroom, just don't leave a mess."

Naruto scowled and yanked his mask back up, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like 'hag' as he stomped after his sensei, euphoric glow long gone.

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Genkai led the way to the temple, pointing out a few points of interest along the way, such as the wards set up to ward off intruders, the koi pond, the meditation chamber, before leading him into the main house.

"This wll be your room for the duration of your stay." she explained, pushing aside a screen door to reveal a modest sized room, "I don't care what you do with it so long as you keep it tidy," she said, a look of authority in her eye, "No live animals or anything that makes a mess either."

Naruto shrugged, and stepped past her, biting his thumb and spreading the blood across his storage scroll, causing the reiki master to raise an eyebrow as several weapons, scrolls and clothes appeared in a puff of smoke.

'He's certainly well organised.' she muttered, watching the blonde put away his things, FAR too neatly for a boy his age, 'But then again, living alone he'd HAVe to be.'

Muttering darkly to herself, the Reiki maater made a mental note to find a certain blonde hokage when she crossed over and introduce him to her reigun.

Naruto, towel ovr his shoulder, raised an eyebrow at the thundercloud looming behind his master and cleared his throat.

"Genkai-sensei, where's the bathroom?"

Still caught up in her own thoughts, the elderly reiki master pointed down the hallway; "Third on the right." she muttered, before returning to her thoughts.

As the blonde walked off though, she looked up suddenly, blinking in confusion and mild alarm.

'Wait...where's Yukina?'

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Whistling a small tune under his breath, towel slung over one shoulder, Naruto slid the door to the shoer oen and blinked as steam blocked his vision.

'Is someone in here?' he wondered, waving a hand to try and get a clearer view of the room, blinking as a green blur came into view.

"Genkai-san, is that you?" a voice called out, just as a small, green haired, and distinctly naked young girl stepped into view.

Now normally, Naruto would have made a speculation on the girl's hair, or the paleness of her skin, or even the colour of her eyes, which were a stunning red, but as fate would have it he never got the chance as the girl let out a piercing shriek.

"PERVERT!"

The blonde blinked and promptly switched places with a broom, watching in mild horror as it was engulfed in ice, shattering against the floor.

'W-what the heck?!' he wondered, waving his arms frantically in an attempt to calm her down, which as everyone knows, only made the situation worse.

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" the girl cried out, sending a veritable snowstorm towarfds the hapless blonde, who barely managed to dodge in time, wincing as a few locks of hair snapped off, frozen.

"W-WAIT!" he yelled, holding up his hands, "I'm not a burglar! I'm-!"

"My newest Baka deshi." Genkai muttered, grabbing the blonde's ear, amidst cries of protest, tossing the distraught girl the blonde's towel. "Calm down Yukina, get dressed and I'll explain the whole thing after the dimwit here freshens up."

Naruto decided to let the dimwit comment slide, as the hag HAD saved him from becoming a popsicle.

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After a quick wash and the following introduction, a thuroughly embarrased Yukina apologised for overreacting, whilst Naruto assured it was HIS fault for not checking to see if there was someone in the bathroom, though he did accept the extra bowls of rice she offered him, claiming it was the best he'd eaten otuside Konoha, until a wry comment from his sensei that it was the ONLY thing he'd eaten outside Konoha.

After lunch though, the aged master led the blonde towards the main training hall, where she eyed him carefully.

"No doubt you've covered the basics of training with your aura from the fox," she theorized, noting the blondes nod with some satisfaction, "and your academy training no doubt enabled you to gain a firm grasp of your chakra control, regardless of the imbalances caused by the seal."

She frowned at him, "But before I can see what we need to wok on, I need to know where you stand."

With that, she pushed a panell in the wall, causing it to rise up slowly. Naruto braced himself for whatever lay on the otherside, only to blink as the lights snapoped on to reveal...

'...An arcade?'

Genkai snorted at the look of disbelief on her apprentices face, "Love that first look of surprise people get when they see this place...but enough messing around."

She walked into the arcade, the machines coming to life as she passed, "Each specific game has a meaning, the janken game tests your sixth sense, the punching game measures your spiritual attack power, whilst the Karaoke machine measures your soul's spiritual strength."

Naruto nodded, trying to keep up, thumbing over his shoulder at the others, "what about that lot?"

Genkai shrugged, "They're just for fun." she eyed the blonde with a ready eye, "You'll only get one shot at this, so don't waste my time."

Naruto smirked, and headed towards the punching machine, ready to burn off some of the irritation he'd built up on the way here.

"Wait!" Genkai called out, causing him to pause, "One more thing about these games..."

Naruto froze, wondering if there was some sort of penalty involved for failing them.

"...they're 100 yen each to play." Genkai muttered, smirking as the blonde blinked in apparent confusion.

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Uchiha Sasuke watched as Kakasi taunted his male teammate. Tomo had fallen into one of the simplest traps ever, and was currently dangling upside down from a tree, cussing his head off at the smiling jounin, as he was reminded on the need to 'Look beneath the underneath.'

sasuke saw a chance and sent a flurry of Kunai at the jounin, all of which collided, much to the horror of Tomo, who let out a squak of terror, thaty mis, until the corpse changed into a log.

'SHIT!' Sasuke yelled, recognising the kawarimi and dashing away from his former position, desperate to put some distance between the no doubt approaching jounin and himself.

'Dammit! these guys are useless!' he grumbled, remembering how easily Sakura ahd been taken down as well, 'If Naruto were here we'd have had those bells faster than you could say 'ramen'...'

At the mention of his blonde partner in crime the Uchiha frowned, the cogs turning in his head, before a smirk crossed his features, a rather familiar smirk, the type of smirk that would cause ORochimaru himself to shiver.

'Hn...a little vulgar for my tastes...' he began scoping the area, 'but what the heck, he deserves it.'

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Kakashi sped through the undrgrowth, tracking down the last of his charges, the villages precious Uchiha, a small part of him wondering what to expect from the village's golden boy, the other trying to enjoy the beauty that was Icha-Icha paradise.

"Sashiburidana...Hatake Kakashi"

Kakashi felt a shiver go up his sine at the voice and lost his page, spinning round to glare at the ANBU uniformed...

"Uchiha...Itachi" the jounin muttered, putting his book away, the missing nin chcukled darkly, his sharingan de-activated, a strange gleam in his obsidian eyes.

"Such a cold tone...Kakashi." the man muttered, stepping forwards, "Aren't you happy toi see me?"

Kakashi frowned, "What are you doing here...come to finish what you started?" he drew a kunai and held it at his side, "Come to finnish Sasuke off too?"

Itachi sighed, "It's always business with you...isn't it Kakashi?" the man sighed, running a gloved hand through his hair, "And after I came all this way...'

The Uchiha's eyes took on a strange look; it was a look Kakashi knew all too well, it was th reason he'd started wearing a mask after all, he'd also seen it on Anko's face from time toi time whenever she'd bumped itno him at ANBU headquarters, a look of HUNGER.

"Just to see you." Itachi finished, eyeing the startyled jounin like a piece of meat.

Kakashi flinched, feeling the beginings of a rash forming at the mere thought of waht the man was implying and supressed a shiver, however the momentary lapse in attention caused him to take his eyes off the missing nin, who vanished in a plume of smoke.

Cursing, the cycloptic jounin spun his head to the right, looking for the missing nin and reaching for his headband, only to shiver as a pair of arms wrapped around his neck, a pair of NAKED arms.

"That's not a kunai in my pocket." Itachi purred in the jounin's ear, blowing into it for emphasis.

That did it, Kakashi let out a girlish shriek as his homophobia kicked in, breaking out of the Uchiha's grip and heading for the hills, hackles raised and skin reddening under a rash as fierce as killer bees. So great was his desire to flee, that he failed to notice that his waist was slightly lighter than when he started.

Itachi smirked, and promptly dissapeared in a cloud of smioke, revealing a triuphant Sasuke, who was tossing the bells in the air.

"I don't know whether to feel proud or dirty." he muttered, shaking his head and grabbing the bells out of the air, "Wonder if Naruto has the same problems..."

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After an intial argument, Genkai agreed to allow Naruto to use the machines for free, THIS time only, and had sat back and watched the blonde let rip, a smile on her face.

'The boy's spiritual atack power rated a 165, that's only a little higher than Yusuke's when he first showed up," she snorted, "and he's definitely no Kuwabara, but with a spiritual awareness of 10 out of 15, he's certainly no lightweight in regards to detecting a person's aura.'

She winced as the boy's singing blasted over the speakers, the readings going off the chart.

'Better add being tone-deaf to that list...' she muttered, shaking her head, 'still, 100 points aint to shabby.'

**_"Right here Right now (Bang!) Buppanase Like a dangan LINER! Right here Right now (Burn!) Buttakitteku ze Get the fire! BAM!"_**

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Kakashi sat huddled in side the hollowed out centre of a dead tree, with nothing but his little orange book of porn to comfort him as he tried to steady his nerves. He hadn't had to worry this much since he left ANBU all those years ago, and even then he'd had to take therapy for the attacks, he still regretted walking in on Gai in the shower, the man was just a little TOO friendly for comfort.

'Come to think of it...' the jounin muttered, 'the attacks started up again shortly after someone started stealing my books.'

He growled, old confidence returning at the thought of the unknown perpetrator, and mentally promised himself that if he ever caught the bastard he'd introduce Raikiri to the bastard's balls.

Hearing the distant chiming of his alarm clock, the jounin sighed and climbed out of the hole, one part of him sad that the fun was over so soon, the other ready to pull the second part of the test on his poor charges.

Sadly for Kakashi, it just wasn't meant to be, as he found his students waiting for him at the stumps, Sakura and Tomo already pigging out, whil Sasuke leaned against a tree.

"You're late, sensei." the Uchiha muttered, not looking up, earning a wince from the jounin.

"And you all failed." the jounin replied, only to blink as Sakura and Tomo each held up a bell, the latter with his cheeks puffed out with rice.

"Sasuke-kun got them for us!" Sakura yelled out, clutching her hands together and batting her eyes at the Uchiha. Said avenger promptly ignored her as he shot a smug grin at the jounin, a grin that reminded him suspiciously of the Itachi he'dmet in the woods.

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After bodily dragging the blonde away from the stricken Karaoke machine, Genkai led him towards a roped off section of the woods, one with an aura dark enough to cause the hackles on the back of his neck to stand up.

"This dark forest is home to a variety of fell beasts and monsters that have managed to avoid humans for countless generations, the only reason they are permitted to stay here is that they've been here longer than me, and thus have a better understanding of the environment." genkai explained, smirking, "That and the fact that they're all to weak to do any harm to anyone but a rank novice, even in my current condition I'm more than a match for them."

She nodded towards the woods, "Those that have survived it call it the cursed forest, I find it quite quaint, and a good way to ward of annoying salesmen."

Naruto snorted and cracked his neck joints, "Lemme guess, you want me to go in there?"

Genkai nodded, "See that tree?" she aslked, pointing to an impressively tall tree at the end of the forest, "Reach that tree to finnish the exercise, I'll time you."

The blonde smirked and dashed forwards, leaping from tree branch to tree branch in his attempt to clear the course as fast as possible. Or rather he was, until Genkai used his head as a springboard.

"Quit messing around and meet me at the tree." She chastised, dashing through the forest, "Don't keep me waiting too long."

She smirked as the blondes curses followed in her wake.

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Naruto growled under his breath, so far he'd encountered giant, man eating plants, a butt-ugly head with arms, and enough slimy things to pout the kunoichi from his graduating class into shock. Needless to say the blonde was not amused, and this showed in the level of killing intent leaking out of him, which had scared off all the other wildlife in the immediate vicinity, that and his brutal slaughtering of a hapless anaconda, who had the misfortune of looking at him the wrong way at the wrong time.

'I swear,' he growled through clenched teeth, 'if I see so much as one more bug or snake or low level demon grunt I'm torching this place!'

Abruptly, he tilted his head to the side to avoid a black blurr, before nailing it to a tree with a well aimed Kunbai, revealingit to be the biggest bat he'd ever seen.

"Great, first bugs, then snakes, and now flying rats." he muttered, retrieving his kunai, "I just LOVE this place..."

"Then why don't you stay a while?"

Whirling around in surpprise and hurling his Kunai at the voice, the blonde blinked at the odd sight before him. Hanging upside down from a tree branch curtesy of a set of painfull looking talons was what appeared to be a giant bat with the head of a man, the hair swept to the sides and the most ridiculous bow around his neck.

"Who the heck are you?" he muttered, blinking at the sight, his fox senses on high alert for some reason, the freak smelled of old blood.

The creature chittered creepily, "So rude, tresspassing in my domain, hurting my servants..." it bared it's fangs, "I think you should stay for dinner!"

Naruto bristled and held a kunai in front of him protectively, "Gee...what's on the menu, fried rat?"

"No...YOU!"

The creature swooped down, mouth wide anbd ready to take a bite out of the blonde, only to back step in mid air, wings flapping as the blonde dissapeared in a puff of smoke.

"Where'd he go?!"

"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu!"

The bat master shrieked and flapped his wings to avoid a fireball that could have deepfried a rhino, glaring at his would be target accusingly.

"HEY! YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!"

Naruto sweatdropepd, eyeing the freak cautiously, "Uh...that WAS my intention." he muttered, wondering just hw messed up this freak was, "What, you thought I'd just sit still and be eaten?"

The bat master hissed, landing on another branch and watching as the blonde dissapeared into the undergrowth, a small smile growing on his pointed face.

"Brat...if you think you can escape from me by using the shadows...YOU'RE SADLY MISTAKEN!"

The freak leapt from his perch, letting off a high pitched salvo of ultrasonic waves, which actually caused some of it's smaller minions to fall out of the air. Naruto, caught in the blast as well, stumbled in mid leap and fell from his tree, landing on the ground badly.

"GOTCHA!" the demon shrieked, before swoping in, fangs bared, and latching onto the blonde's shoulder like a leech.

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Naruto's world shook, completely off-centre. He cursded as he realised that his enhanced sense of hearing had caused the damage to his inner ear to be amplified to the point he was completely deaf. He twitched as he felt blood run down the side of hsi cheek, the result of his ruptured ear drums, and glared at the ugly little parasite that was the cause of his discomfort.

"D-damn freak..." he hissed, grabbing hold of the demon's hair, "Get off!"

The bat master merely dug his claws into the blonde's midriff, causing him to grunt in pain as the talons pierced the skin, and resumed feeding with increased gusto.

Naruto grunted and tried to grab a kunai from his holster, only to curse as it had become dislodged in the scuffle, and lay a foot from his boby, out of reach with the demon laying over him.

'Dammit...' he cursed, feelign light-headed,' so this is how it goes.'

The blonde thought he could hear the roars of his adoptive parent as the youko rammed against the bars of the cage, but even those died down as he stared up at the canopy.

'After surviving in that hellhole for so many years...I get taken out by an overgrown flying rat...' he aughed mockingly, 'wonderfull.'

Unbidden, the memories surfaced, as if to further mock the blonde's current situation.

_"MONSTER!"_

_"Why don't you just die?!"_

_"Go back to hell where you came from!"_

'Hn, guess you get your wish, bastards.' the blonde muttered, a growl forming in the back of his throat.

_'Can't have you running away can we?'_

_'Look...it's THE kid...'_

_'Hn...would've been better if he just died.'_

Naruto's growl deepened, causing his lip o curl in anger, 'bstards...always looking down their noses at me...never giving me a chance...just who do they think they are?!'

_'Would have done us all a favour if he just died.'_

_'Damn demon, I should kill it.'_

The blonde dug his hand into the soil under him, feeling a strange surge of energy fill his veins, beneath him, the roots of the trees seemed to hum as he glared down at the shocked demon.

**"GET THE FUCK OFF ME!!!!"**

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Genkai looked up sharply at the sudden surge of power that filled the air, before bliniking as a massive tree shot upwards, growing at an incredible pace untill it was as tall as a small skyscraper, the branches spreading out to loom over the forest.

'Well now...' she muttered, gazing up at the top, an impressed look on her face, 'I wasn't expecting THAT.'

Abruptly, the battered corpse of the bat master fell from the topmost branches of the tree, looking like he'd been clubbed to beath by a troll, sliding down the branches to land on the canopy below.

"I hate my life." he whimpered, gazing at the setting sun, "Maybe I should've been like cousin vlad and set up camp in a castle."

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Naruto awoke to the sight of a hardwood ceiling, blinking in surprise as it became clear that his healing factor had repaired the damage to his hearing.

"Don't try to sit up," Genkai's voice warned, the aged master leaning over him, "you lost at least a pint of blood there, I wouldn't expect you to be up again for at least two days, even with your obvious healing capabilities."

Naruto blinked owlishly at the woman, then looked up as Yukina tilted his head slightly, holding a bowl to his lips.

"Drink this," the Koorime said gently, "it'll help sped up the healing process."

Naruto, nose reeling from the foul smelling broth, did as he was told, forcing the mixture down and trying not to choke on his own tongue.

"Water.." he croaked, desperate to clear the taste from his mouth, and a glass was pressed to his lip, the clear liquid within washing away the last traces of the brew.

"You really surprised me kid." Genkai muttered, causing the blonde to look up, "To think I'd bump into TWO plant masters in my lifetime..." she pushed the screen door open to reveal the distant image of the massive tree now looming over the cursed forest, "That's quite a feat you pulled back there."

Naruto blinked at the giant tree in the distance, not quite compehending what the woman was saying.

"Wait...I did that?"

Genkai frowned, "You mean you've never done it before?"

Naruto gave her a look, "Don't you think I'd have mentioned it before?" he frowned, "Besides, the only other person with a power like that would be..."

"The Shodai Hokage," Genkai cut in, "I know, I've read up on him, seeing as Sarutobi was his student." She snorted,staring out at the tree, "Old fart idolizes the guy, though if what you just did is an example of his powers, I can see why."

Naruto blinked, 'the scroll of seals lists Mokuton as an inherited Kekkei Genkai that only Shodai Hokage could perform; not even the Nidaime, his brother, could use it, though he was well professed in suiton jutsu.'

He eyed the tree in the middle of the forest critically, 'For me to be able to use Mokuton...I think old man Sarutobi and I need to have a few words.'

"Anyway," Genkai cut in, "training's out until you're better." she smiled down at him, a glint of amusement in her eyes, "So get better fast, dimwit."

Naruto snorted and feebly gave the woman the finger, "That anyway to talk to an invalid you old hag?"

Genkai simply walked off, shooting him an amused glare over her shoulder, Yukina following behind her.

"Get your rest, You'll need it."

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Well there we go, and as you can see, Naruto's Kekkei Genkai is quite the dark horse eh?

R&R!!!!

Next time on Cry of the Youko

(Intro music starts)

Naruto: Damn old man, keeping something big like this as secret! When I get my ahnds on him I'll-!

Genkai: Focus on your training dimwit!

Naruto: What the-?! Watch where you aim that finger!

Genkai: HAAAA!

Next time on Cry of the Youko: Training regimen from hell!

Naruto: That old hag's trying ta kill me!

(Music ends)


	8. Chapter 8

Just to warn you guys, there's been a bit of a timeskip, so if you were expecting a detailed account of Genkai's training regimen, just recount everything Yusuke went through...or use your sadistic little imaginations.

Also, apologies for taking so long, but writers block, and coursework, are evils that take time to vanquish.

* * *

Chapter Eight

Several months passed since the dissapearance of the Kyuubi no jinchuuriki, several, long, glorious months, which the residents of Konoha spent frolicking, drinking and generally getting completly shit-faced. The only thing that seemed to have any sobering effect on their 'happy-time' was some pessimistic bastard pointing out that the brat was coming back, and that the Hokage HADN'T , in fact, labled him a missing nin.

Said pessimists were usually ignored, or silenced for their 'blasphemy'; the public had little desire to recall that the blonde horror could be walking back through the gates any day now, let alone the fact he would be coming back stronger than ever, as quite a few had heard rumors of Genkai, including that she was one of the few people that could take the Hokage in a one-on-one fight.

(This was, of course, before she surrendered most of her power to Yusuke, but there's no need to tell THEM that, eh?)

So as it was, the villagers had adopted the old 'when the cat's away' addage and were partying hard, several husbands actualy having to spend time on the couch just fr getting a little TOO rowdy.

Unfortunately for them, there is an older, more profound addage which they really hould take into account, and that would be the fact that if a cat comes back, it's usually hungry.

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Gekko Hayate, the chunin guarding the gate, yawned. He'd just let some sand-nins in a while ago, and quite frankly, he didn't appreciate the job of 'gatekeeper' any more than he liked having to pay for cough medicine. And trust me, the last thing you wanted was to stop buying cough medicine in his condition. Now two figures in brown traveling cloaks was walking towards him, and he didn't like the way the taller of the two was covering his face.

The shorter of the two, an aged woman with a piercing glare, looked up at him and sniffed. "Genkai and student, returning for the chunin exams." She said, frowning slightly as she held out a passport, "Here're our papers, now hurry up and let us in." she growled, the trip hadn't been an easy onbe on her old bones and she truly despised paperwork in all it's forms.

Hayate, taking the time to check the papers, frowned at the name on the other. 'So, the nine-tails kid is back huh?' he noted neutrally, not really having anything against Naruto personally, 'Better, let the Hokage know.'

"Actually, I'll let him know myself." The taller figure said, causing Hayate to jump, "Can't have you deserting your post, now can we, Hayate-san?"

While the startled shinobi could only stutter in shock, Naruto marched past, a grin hidden under his mask.

'Did...did he just read my mind?!' Hayate wondered, incredibly alarmed at this thought, before evaluating the survival rating of the local populace once news had spread of the blonde's return, 'We are so screwed.' he deduced, though it was with a weakm grin.

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"I trust the boy wasn't too much trouble?" Sarutobi asked, pouring some sake into a saucer for Genkai. The woman snorted and sipped it, sighing as she enjoyed the soothing liquid.

"He's fine," she replied, "actually a lot better mannered than my last student, and the fox is a positive influence in that regard at least." she acknowledged, taking another sip of the beverage.

Sarutobi sighed in relief, he'd been worried that Naruto and Genkai would bump heads, something that didn't sound appealing no matter how far away you were. Looking around the office Genkai snorted, "Room hasn't changed since the last time I was in here." She looked around, "First time I met you, you'd just been appointed." She shook her head, "You asked me out, in front of Toguro no less," she smirked at the Hokage, "that took balls."

Sarutobi chuckled, "My skull still has the stitches from the thumping you gave me" he admitted, "though I really had no idea you two were an item."

"'Were' being the decisive factor here." Genkai muttered, sighing slightly in her seat, a shadow crossing her aged features.

Sarutobi shifted, knowing these were dangerous waters, and that any a man had suffered a painfull beating for putting the wrng word forward."For what it's worth, he was a good man," he stated, catching her attention, "we didn't see eye to eye, literally," he grumbled the last part, recalling just how damn tall the younger Toguro had been, "but a more honorable fighter I'd never met."

"Would it be that he STAYED like that." Genkai muttered, chugging down the sake before getting to her feet with a sigh. "I'd better be going, my apartment isn't going to get any closer."

"Allow me to escort you." Sarutobi muttered, raising a hand defensively as he caught the look in her eyes, "Not that I think you need the protection, but…well…"

Genkai frowned at him for a few minutes, before snorting and shaking her faded pink head, "Same old Saru," she muttered wrly, "even after all these years…your a hopeless flirt."

"Well you know what they say," Sarutobi chuckled, opening the door, "You're only as old as you feel." he loked around and fronwed slightly, "By the way, where did you say Naruto-kun weant?"

Genkai shrugged and walked out the door, "Said he was taking a walk, he'll be fine."

'That's not what I'm concerned about' Sarutobi muttered,' sweatdropping at the thought of Naruto wreaking havoc on his onetime tormentors with Genkai's techniques.

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Naruto was currently lightening the pockets of every villager he bumped into as he made his way to the Ichiraku ramen stand. Apparently, the place had gone downhill since he'd left, and they we're having a hard time coping. "Hey, Oyaji, I'd like to place an order." He called out, tapping the counter for emphasis.

Ichiraku turned and nodded, "What'll it be?" he asked, then stared flummoxed at the amount of bills on the table.

"Enough Miso Ramen that this'll pay for, and a couple of Ichiraku specials." Pulling his hood back, Naruto's eye's twinkled mischievously, "I've been away for a while, and I missed the taste of home."

"Naruto-kun!" Ichiraku roared, reaching around the banner to clasp the boy by the shoulders as if he were the man's own son, "Ayame! Come out here! Guess who's back!"

"Dad? What are you-?" Ayame came round the curtain and blinked, before breaking into a smile and dashing forwards, "Naruto-kun!"

Naruto was glad of the mask that covered his face, as he felt it wouldn't do to be barred from Ichiraku's because of the grin he had on as Ayame hugged him close.

'Ah...nothing like home' he praised, sighing and taking int he scent of broth and flour that the older girl had been making, before returning the hug and smiling up at the duo, "Guess you missed me, huh?"

"Missed you?!" Ichiraku stated, "How could we not! You're like familly to us!"

Ayame slapped him on the shoulder, "Don't ever leave like that again!" she chastised, "You didn't even write!"

Naruto merely smiled and waved his hands apologetically, "Suman-suman...now about that ramen?"

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After a joyous reunion with the Ichiraku family, Naruto gorged himself on a veritable mountain of ramen, enough to make even an Akimichi wince. Leaving a VERY generous tip, as well as a gift for the two, the latest issue of 'ramen monthly' and a beautiful pair of earrings, Naruto decided to check out his old haunts. These included the library, the hokage monument, the academy and the park, but since there was no one there, he figured better than to stick around.

**"Are you not going to look for her?"** Kyuubi asked, breaking into the boy's thoughts.

'Maybe later,' Naruto repleid, 'after all, rushing spoils the mood, right?' he sniffed the air and caught a familiar scent, "Speak of the devil…"

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Hinata had just waved goodbye to her teammates, who'd gone off home ten minutes ago, and was still training in the field. Ever since Naruto had left, the shy Hyuuga had motivated herself to become stronger. If she ever faltered, the memory of his last words and their…kiss…usually brought her back on track.

"Don't you think that hitting a defenseless tree is a bit…well…unfair?" a familiar voice whispered in her ear. Squeaking in shock she spun round, only to find no one there.

"Over here."

Turning around to face the tree she'd been pummeling, she saw the faintest hint of a shadow flit through the bushes.

"Over here."

Hinata spun around; watching as the branches moved and the shadow disappeared. "B-byakugan!" she called out, trying to catch the intruder in the dojutsu's infamous field of vision, the image seemed hazy, as if the Chakra wasn't there at all, and then she saw something move behind her.

"Jyuken!" she yelled out, slapping her palm into the shadow and sending out a stream of chakra. The shadow poofed out of existence, revealing itself as a shadow clone, and as Hinata spun to look round a pair of arms embraced her from behind.

"Did you miss me…Hinata-chan?"

Hinata felt herself freeze at the voice, scarcely daring to believe it. "N-Naruto…kun?" she prodded cautiously, shivering at the chuckle that replied.

"I go away for almost a year, and that's all you can say?" The arms wrapped around her possessively. "I'm hurt." He purred in her ear.

Hinata felt the infamous flush creep up her face, wondering if it was all just some exhaustion inspired dream, when he turned her around to face him. The blonde was taller than the last time by at least a foot, and his hair was longer, as he needed a ponytail to tie it back. But his blue eyes twinkled as mischievously as ever as he lowered his mask to reveal his bandaged face.

"You've grown." Naruto noted, rubbing a hand down her cheek, "Your even cuter than the last time I saw you." He leaned foreward and nibbled the tip of her nose, earning a squeak of protest, "Stronger too…it makes you all the more appealing." Leaning foreward again he smiled, "Shall I continue where we left off?" he asked in a purring tone "The choice is yours."

Hinata couldn't even speak, she looked up at him, and the look said it all. The blonde brought his lips down again and met hers, rubbing his tongue over her lips until she granted him entry with a surprised squeak. Hinata, shocked out of her gourd, slowly relaxed into the kiss, and moaned.

After dueling with their tongues for a minute, Naruto finally let her come up for air. "Are you taking part in the chunin exams?" he asked, earning a nod in reply, he smirked, "Tell you what, if you make it to the finals, I'll take you out on a date."

Hinata almost fainted from shock, but surprisingly rallied herself, and stared into the teen's eyes. "A-and if I d-don't?" she prodded, squeaking again as Naruto leaned foreward and nipped her earlobe.

"Oh…I'll leave that to your…imagination." the blonde replied huiskily, a playfuly light dancing in his eyes.

If anything could have motivated the Hyuuga into action, those words did it. Just as she was about to faint he captured her lips again. "Don't faint on me now Hinata," he prodded, "you've come so far on your own." He nibbled her lower lip, "Don't lose the moment."

Hinata nodded slowly, then he released her, walking back a few steps. "I'll see you at the exam then," he stated, "and afterwards as well." With that he stepped backwards into the forest, blending into the shadows, the last thing to disappear being his vulpine grin.

"Who knows," he teased, "we may go all the way…"

And with that, Hinata's last dredge of self-control gave in. She fainted dead away, face redder than the setting sun, little bursts of steam rising off her forehead.

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"**That was cruel."** Kyuubi muttered, though there was a note of approval in his tone, **"You shall be the death of that girl one day."**

'Hinata's tougher than that.' Naruto countered, nose deep in his beloved porn, 'She just needs to realize it herself.' He cocked an appreciative eyebrow at a passing Kunoichi with purple hair, 'Hmmm…wonder if the fishnets would work…'

**"She would die of blood-loss if you even suggested it."** Kyuubi countered, **"Stick with the natural look."**

Naruto nodded, then blinked at a familiar sight in a windowsill, "Hmm…what the hell, I could do with a laugh." He walked into the shop, somehow managing to do so without setting off the little bell next to the door, and made his way up the rows of plants to the desk, where a familiar blonde kunoichi was dozing on the table. "Ahem."

Ino's head shot up with the ease of long practice, her sales-face on in a matter of seconds as she smiled at him with her eyes closed cutely. It was such a shame she hadn't noticed the drool on her cheek. "Welcome to Yamanaka-Hana! The best flower store in Konoha!" She greeted, "I'm Ino, can I help you?"

"You have any Damiana?" the masked blonde asked, a palyful light in his eyes as the kunoichi blinked in confusion. "Or perhaps some Ginseng?"

Ino blinked, wondering what on earth the teen was talking about, "Um...sir?"

Naruto tilted his headd to the side , pretending not to have heard her, "Hmm...Hoodia gordonii may come in handy too, I don't suppose you have any Maca root?"

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Ino yelled, looking decidedly put on, "This is a flower store! Not a Greenhouse!"

"Oh really?" Naruto asked, internally gloating at getting such a rise out of the Kunoichi, "Suman-suman, must have got the wrong address." He turned and walked to the dorr, opening it and setting off the bell.

Ino blinked, wondering why the bell didn';t alert her the first time before shrugging and looking up as her dad walked in, "Something wrong precious?" the Yamanaka patriarch asked, smiling at his 'precious little flower who could do no evil'.

"Dad, what's Damiana?"

Later that day, Yamanaka Inoichi had to be rushed to the hospital, as he had the misforutne of suffering seven consecutive heart attacks.

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The next morning, Naruto marched into the academy, grinning at the graffiti that now adorned the walls. 'I see Konohamaru's been keeping the prankster tradition going…I knew I chose well in teaching him a few tricks.' Spotting a familiar glare of pink in the crowd he winced.

"Unbe-fucking-lieveable…" Marching forward he tapped Sasuke on the back of the head, "I can't believe the pink haired freak actually made it this far, I thought for sure you'd have slit its throat by now."

Team seven spun round, staring at the blonde in shock, before Sasuke grinned and clapped a hand on Naruto's shoulder, "When'd you get back?" he asked, glad to see his closest fried after such a long time.

"Yesterday," Naruto replied, "thought I'd do a little sight seeing", he looked around, "Where's the other guy, Tomo was it?" The other two looked down, and he nodded, "I'm sorry…"

Sasuke shrugged, "He managed to buy us time to beat this tough guy from the mist," he explained, looking at the ground reverently, "I'd have died otherwise."

"Guess I owe him a sake jug up in heaven then." Naruto muttered, causing the Uchiha to sigh. "Anyway, what are you doing on the second floor, I thought test were on the third?"

While everyone began muttering amongst him or herself, a pair of proctors in disguise decided to interrupt the group, if not for the timely intervention of a bushy browed genin in green spandex, Sasuke would have lost his head.

As it was, they weren't to see the last of 'bushy brows.'

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"That was the most disturbing thing I've ever seen." Naruto muttered, shivering at the memory of Gai and Lee's 'Manly hug', "You think it's a genjutsu that causes all those sparkles?"

Sasuke shook his head, "I don't want to know."

As they walked along they bumped into Kakashi, who smiled in that bizarre manner of his. "AH, you're all here," the jounin greeted, "and I see Naruto is here as well."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Have we met?" he asked, runing a speculative eye over the jounin, as if sizing him up.

Kakashi did his one eyed smile and scratched his head, "Well, since teams of three are needed for the chunin exams, the Hokage said you'd be temporarily be joining my squad."

"So I can't compete unless I join a team?" Naruto asked, before shrugging, "Fine, been dying to see how Sasuke turned out." He smirked, "Pick up any girls yet?"

Kakashi raised a finger in the air, a merry little twinkle in his eye. "Actually-oof!"

"We're going, c'mon." Sakura growled, marching through the doors past the unfortunate Kakashi, whom she'd just punched in the stomach.

Raising an eyebrow at a flushed Sasuke Naruto blanched. "Please don't tell me you two hooked up." he pleaded, a note of horror entering his tone, "For the love of god, think of the children!"

Sasuke grimaced, "God no!" he flushed a little, "her names Haku…maybe I'll introduce you later."

Naruto snickered, "Keep this up and you'll have the Uchiha's back on their feet in no time." he goaded, slapping his friedns shoulder, "Tell you what, theres a little somethign that can help you called Maca root..."

Kakashi blinked from his position on the floor, just as the doors shut in his face.

'Where'd he hear about THAT stuff?' he wondered, intrigued at this new little wrinkle in the development of things.

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"Quite the little ensemble." Naruto muttered, pulling out his book, "I bet those Iwa-nins are named for the rocks in their heads."

Sasuke snorted, before the other members of their graduating year approached.

"Kiba, Chouji, Shikamaru." Naruto greeted; those three where some of the few he'd interacted with at school, Kiba as a fellow prankster, Chouji and he had shared lunches, and Shikamaru was the best damn Shougi player in Konoha. He looked up at Ino, already trying to flirt with Sasuke and smiled sympathetically. "Sorry Blondie, Sasuke's got a girlfriend already," he tapped his chin suggestively, "in fact, I hear she's expecting."

While Sasuke choked in embarrassment, Ino let out a gut wrenching cry of "Nooooooo!" while doing the 'SCREAM' pose.

"I kid, I kid…about the kid at least." Naruto snickered, waving a hand in dismissal of the cruel joke. he sidestepped a blow from Sakurasa, causing her to stumble forwards and crash into her rival for Sasuke's affections. Looking around he spotted Hinata hiding behind Shino and smiled, eyes twinkling in a mischievous way that caused the girl to flush.

'She's so damn cute when she does that!' he thought appreciatively, letting his eyes roam over her while pretending to read, though he didn't think Shino bought it, but the stoic Aburame didn't say anything.

A silver haired genin with glasses then told them to keep it down, before introducing himself as Kabuto, an eighth time entrant of the exam. "If you like," the teen offered, "I can share some of the info I've gathered over the years."

"Do you have anything on Sabaku no Gaara, and rock lee of Konoha?" Sasuke asked, eyeing the redheaded sand nin with trepidation, having had a run in with him and his siblings earlier on that day.

Kabuto frowned and checked the card, "Lee's a year older than you, his team trained for a whole extra year for this exam, so they're pretty strong, I'd say Taijutsu is his strong point." Changing cards he checked the data, "Gaara's from the Sand, he's completed lots of C-rank missions, and even a B rank, reports say he returned completely unharmed from every encounter, other than that, no data." Smiling, the white haired genin looked up, "Anyone else?" he asked looking around.

"Uzumaki Naruto." Shino cut in, surprising everyone. No one expected the stoic teen to speak out. Kabuto, nonplussed, pulled out the card. Naruto frowned at the teen, bt shrugged it off, knwoing there was little harm in humoring the bug users curiosity, they were allies after all.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Kabuto mumbled, shuffling the deck, "odd, no team data other than his supposed sensei, a woman named Genkai. There's no knowledge of his skills outside the academy, though apparently he was ranked second after Sasuke-kun, by a very short margin. The only mission data available is that he completed an A rank mission involving a rogue chunin, shortly after graduating, though he was wounded in the attempt."

Everyone stared at the blonde who shrugged, "Mizuki sensei stole the Hokage's scroll of seals, I bumped into him, bastard stabbed me in the stomach before he fell into my genjutsu." He smirked behind his mask, "Damn fairy must've been mourning the loss of his hair."

Kabuto shrugged, and shuffled his cards, "There's a lot of teams from all the major countries gathered here, the exception being the Sound, since they're only a minor country, recently formed."

Kabuto was interrupted from him ramblings by Dosu from the sound launching a sneak attack. The attack would have been better, if Morino Ibiki hadn't managed to bust things up.

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'Good thing I swiped his notes all those years ago,' the blonde muttered, 'seems Ibiki's trying to force us to quit…two can play this game.'

"And just how do we benefit by not taking the question…Ibiki-san?" he asked, looking lazily at the ANBU captain, "Last I checked, chunin weren't allowed to turn missions down…what would it mean if we did?"

'Kid's got rocks,' Ibiki muttered approvingly, 'I'll give him that much.'

"Nothing really," the ANBU commander admitted, "It's merely a matter of protocol."

"Well, I'm taking it," Naruto stated loudly, "don't know about the others here, but leaf shinobi don't run from a challenge."

Ibiki winced as he noted the looks of rage that crossed the other contestants' faces. 'Psychological warfare…. he's mocking those who're thinking of quitting.' He looked around, 'more than expected, but anyways…'

"Well then, to all those still gathered here," he paused for effect, "you've passed the first exam."

At that moment, Anko smashed her way into the window, startling everybody in the room. "You let this many pass?" she asked, looking annoyed, "I'll whittle them down to less than half."

"If your skills are anywhere near as sharp as your tongue I don't doubt it." Naruto muttered, moving for the door as Anko glared at him, "Lead the way, Madame proctor."

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Naruto paid attention to the woman's speech while reading his book, eyeing the potential candidates with distaste. 'Way too many…this next test is gonna be a real bitch…probably like this proctor.' He eyed a grass Nin of indistinguishable gender and shivered, 'That one reeks of snake.'

Anko, spotting the blonde reading, hurled a kunai in his direction. The blonde vanished in a puff of smoke, revealing itself as a kage bunshin as an annoyed voice spoke out behind her. "That was rude."

Spinning around she smirked at the blonde who was twirling her kunai around on his finger. "Aw, what's the matter," she asked condescendingly, "you don't like to play rough?"

"Not outside the bed, no." Naruto replied, smirking at the dumbstruck look on the assorted genin's faces, whilst Kiba rolled on the ground laughing, Sasuke merely snorted, and Anko smirked, waving a hand dismissively.

"Sorry kid, not my type," she goaded grinning at him wryly, "try again in a few years."

"That an invitation?" Naruto asked, the leer actually making the jounin a little hot under the collar.

'Dammit!' she cursed, turning her back on the genin, 'Why's he have to look like Kakashi?!'

With that, she started the second part of the exam, letting out a shriek and socking the poor proctor standing next to her as she felt someone goose her, missing the look on a certain blonde's face as he darted past. As such, she vented her frustrations on the nearest possible target, which unfortunately happened to be a team form Iwagakure, crippling them and denying the earth nins from entering the second stage of the exam.

* * *

well, that's it for now, how will Naruto fair in the forest of death?

Naruto: Nothing ever goes according to plan, but, then I never did like predictability.

Sasuke: I'll show you how strong I've gotten.

Sakura: Sasuke-kun! You're the greatest!

Naruto: Hm? Where the hell'd you come from?

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Kyugan's explanaton corner:

All of the things Naruto asked Ino for are potent Plant aphordisiacs, and the reason the girl wouldn't know about them is that only licensed herbalkists are permitted to distribute them, so it stands to reason that Inoichi's heart attack at her questioning could be charted up to parental shock.

Why is Naruto on team 7? well he DID want to watch Sasuke's back, and Tomo was merely a filler character with little to no plot behind him, his sole purpose in life was to be a meat shield for Sasuke to avoid being killed by Zabuza, other than that, nothing has changed, except that Tazuna's bridge is now called 'The Great Konoha bridge.'


	9. Chapter 9

Again, I apologise for the long wait, I've been battling the dreaded minions of lord Writers block and haven't come out unscathed either.

For those of you wondering about GAIDEN, don't worry, I will be updating, but it's just getting a little tricky trying to figure out what works...man, now I know how manga artists feel!

Rambling on here...on with the show!

* * *

Chapter Nine

Ignorant of the fate of the Iwa-nins he'd inadvertantly incurred the wrath of Anko upon, Naruto looked over at his long time friend, as if seeing yhim for the first time.

'Sasuke's definiutely gotten stronger.' he noted, 'No where near Genkai-baasan's level of training though...guess that scarecrow's only good for swipping porn from.'

He cast a cursory look over the last member of their would be tema and flinched, 'yikes, this girl's aura's so damn weak I'm surprised she can even perform tree climbing...though from the looks of thing's her chakra control is pretty damn good.'

He snorted and picked up the pace, wanting to put as much distance between the starting line, and the other competitors, as possible.

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Sasuke loked over his shoulder at the blonde who he considered, by all extents, to be his TRUE brother, by bond if not by blood. The teen had changed a lot in the time he'd spent away.

It showed in the way the teen carried himself, he seemed more...in tune with himself than when he left, as if he had come to understand how his body worked. Either that or he'd gotten laid, which could very well be the case, seeing how the teen went on about the contents of his favourite reading material.

Thinking of that, the Uchiha clutched his hand around the pendant he was wearing, a fond smile crossing his features at the memory of the greatest change in his life since the blonde had left.

'Haku...'

Sakura, noticing the smile on the normally stoic Uchiha's features, instantly went into groupie mode and clenched her fists.

'Chyaa! Without that mist skank here to distract him, I'll finally succeed in stealing Sasuke's heart!'

_'SHANNARO!'_ added inner sakura, stamping down on a chibified version of Haku, fist punching the air.

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Four hours into the forest and the team decided to stop to gather themselves and asses their surroundings.

Naruto, putting his training to good use, had secured the area, and his first order of business was to relieve a passing mist nin of his scroll. It was an earth scroll, no doubt, but they could trade it in if they needed, so the blonde figured it wasn't a complete waste of time as they regroubed at the campsite.

'We've established a camp,' the blonde muttered, meditating as they took a brief rest stop in a clearing, 'there's food and shelter nearby…but we're nowhere near the tower if we just go by the position...' He froze as he sensed one of the wards he set up being broken, snapping his head round warily.

'What was that?' he cursed, 'How'd they get this close?'

Looking around he saw Sasuke sitting looking at a pendant, while Sakura huddled in a corner, the girl looking decidedly sullen at the teen's fascination with the picture before him, muttering under her breath about 'homewreching whores' or something.

'There it is again,' the blonde muttered, sensing a definite serpentine aura in the background, just before his thief senses flared up in a warning klaxxon worthy of fort knoxx 'Damn! Behind us!'

"Take cover!" he yelled, grabbing onto a root as a tremendous blast of wind hit the camp. he watched as Sasuke leapt back, wincing as Sakura's shriek nearly deafened his enhanced ears. Naruto swore as the moss under his fingers began to tear under the preassure before tearing off with a sickening noise, causing him to be blasted through the air.

"Fuuuuuuuuuucccccccckkkkkk!!!!!!!!!"

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"Naruto!" Sasuke yelled, gripping onto the tree for dear life using the tree climbing exercise, onlyto wince as he saw Sakura hurtle past, the Kunoichi having been caught completely off guard.

"Che!" the teen cursed, leaping from his tree and grabbing the skinny girl around the waist, using a Kunai to halt their progress, gritting his teeth as he waited for the preassure to die down.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cheered, "You saved me!"

"We're teammates." The teen replied, "I'm not the sort of trash that forgets that."

The looked over his shoulder at the darkness the trees fomed, scowling, 'Naruto...I know you're okay...' he blinked as the wind settled, before glaring at the chuckling figure standing before them.

"Dare-da omai?" the Uchiha growled out, readying a kunai as the figure chuckled again.

"Kukukuku...such fire in those eyes," the androgynous grass nin hissed, "you really are Itachi's outoto."

Sasuke's eyes widened in shock as he felt his grip tighten, "How do you know that name?!" he yelled, only for the grass nin to hold up a scroll.

"The time for chit chat is over," He/she replied, swallowing the scroll in a sickening manner, "I'm afraid I have engagements to keep, and I DO so despise tardiness."

The grass nin glared at him and Sasuke suddenly felt as if he were being ripped apart in a hail of kunai.

'Wha-What IS he?!'

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Naruto swore as he tried to right himself, but the turbulent winds made making any headway as easy as trying to stop jiraiya from being a perv. However, just as he blasted off, he sensed Sasuke and Sakura's chakra signatures together and nodded appreciatively.

"Makes it easier to find them." He thought, before slamming his palms together in a snake seal. "Mokuton no jutsu!"

At once, the trees seemed to block off the wind, and a soft branch caught the blonde as he landed. Smirking he made another seal, this time of the ram, and disappeared in a swirl of leaves, but not before channeling a good deal of chakra into the surrounding vegetation. Abruptly, the snake that had been trying to sneak up on the blonde jinchuuriki fell prey to a rather vicious pack of redwoods, the scene far to gruesome to be detailed.

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Sasuke had been holding his own against the bizarre grass Nin, actually barbequing the bastard with a Ryuuka no jutsu smack in the face, but had stupidly let his guard down long enough for the freak to decide to take a bite out of him. Now his whole body felt like one big welt, and it wasn't helping that he was suffering from chakra drain due to using both the Housenka and the Ryuuka in quick succession.

"Kukukuku… not bad Sasuke-kun," the perverted nin complimented in a disgustingly feminine manner, "I'll be seeing you later." he stated, "though of course, I doubt there'll be much need for concern."

"What did you do to Sasuke-Kun you freak!" Sakura yelled, wincing as the sannin hurled an annoyed look her way.

"Really, such uncouth words...what are they teaching young women these days?" Orochimaru muttered, before dissapearing from view and delivering a fierce backhand to the girl's skull, "Though judging from your pitifull skills...I really shouldn't be that surprised..."

"Katon: Karyuuendan!"

Orochimaru was so caught of guard he barely managed to leap out of the way in time, and in the process lost an arm to the dragon fire blast for his troubles. He stared up at the source and saw the bandaged face of Naruto barreling towards him, eyes blazing with all the demonic fury he could muster.

'The gaki managed to sneak up on me?!' the sanninscreeched, eyes wide with shock as he espied the unfamiliar face leaping towards him, 'What is this-'

"Raiton:" Naruto yelled, making a stance similar to Zabuza's kirrgakure, "Shurai No jutsu!"

The jutsu summoned a lightning bolt that would have cost the sanin his other arm had he not already made for the hills. Glaring back at the teen he snarled, gripping the smouldering stump of what had once been his left arm.

'You haven't seen the last of me.' he hissed, 'This isn't over yet!'

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"Freaking pervert," Naruto muttered, watching as Orochimaru escaped, sans an arm and dignity, "I swear, one of these day's you're gonna end up being raped, and then I'm gonna have to bail you out."

Sasuke fought off the pain long enough to give the blonde the finger, but then passed out next to Sakura.

Naruto sweat dropped, "You mean I gotta carry your pathetic ass?" he asked rhetorically, before snorting, "Not bloody likely." Making the snake seal he focused his chakra, eyes narrowed in concentration.

"Mokuton: Shichuuka no jutsu."

At once, a massive wooden house appeared out of the ground. Grinning to himself, Naruto carried his comatose teammates in, before getting to work on their injuries.

"Man, you guys really had it rough." he muttered, noting the wound on his friends neck and wincing, "and I'll bet my balls that's no ordinary hicky."

Seeing as sasuke wasn't up for detailing the experience, the blonde sighed and laid him out as comfortably as possible, before moving to lean with his back against the wall.

"Little tired myself." he noted, closing his eyes, "May as well snag a few winks while I wait."

He subconciously brought his hands together in a seal, creating ten Kage bunshin, who nodded and promptly scattered to set up a defensive perimeter while their master got some shut eye.

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Not fifteen minutes into his nap, Naruto was awakened by one of his Bunshins canceling, frowning as the memories flooded into his skull.

'The three sound ninja's,' he noted slowly, grinning beneath his mask, 'looks like I get a work out after all.'

Zaku, Dosu and Kin, the three sound genin, were quite shocked to find a house, of all things, in the middle of the woods, however they knew Sasuke was inside, they'd been tracking the Uchiha since the start, and so managed to push their surprise aside in favor of getting this damnable job over and done with.

Unfortunately, in their haste, they set off an trap that sent a hurl of Kunai, armed with exploding tags, right at them, fortunately, Zaku was up toi the task of deflecting them.

"Buenos Naches…shinobi of the sound." Naruto greeted, stepping out the door as trhe smoke died down. "If you're here for Sasuke, forget it, he's asleep." He shrugged in a helpless manner, "The boy so needs his beauty rest, though not as much as the forehead freak."

The Oto-nins chuckled, "You think you could wake him up for us?" Dosu asked, shifting his right arm slightly, "we havew business with him."

Naruto grinned, "Tell ya what, think you could help me warm up?" he asked, popping his neck joints, "I haven't been hunting in a while, I'm getting out of practice."

"Screw you!" Zaku spat, bringing his arms up to bear on the blonde, "Zankuha!!!"

The explosion of air shattered the clearing barreling down on it's target, however Naruto countered with some quick seals.

"Doton: Doroku gaeshi!" he yelled, a wall of earth raised itself from the ground and held against the onslaught, until Dosu's melody arm shattered it. By then Naruto had already used the inner decapitation technique to get behind Kin, grabbing her by the hair and throwing her into her comrades.

"Sorry about that." the blonde muttered, "I usually don't like being so rough," he leered at the kunoichi, causing her to flush, "Unless I'm asked to, of course."

Whilst theuir teammate stammered at the blonde's look, Dosu and Zaku prepared for a second assault, prompting a serious look from Naruto.

"Better end this quick," he deduced, "Can't risk them getting a free shot at Sasuke."

Making the dragon seal he opened his eyes wide, time seeming to slow down as they shone a bright white.

"Genjutsu: Kitsune-bi!"

Instantly there was a flash of St Elmo's fire, and the three sound Nins lay comatose on the ground, faces twitching and eyes wide open, covered in the image of greenish-blue flames.

"Pleasant dreams…or should I say nightmares." Naruto muttered, making the snake seal. "Mokuton: Shichuurou no jutsu."

A cage, barely large enough to hold the three, if they squatted, appeared over them, an errant branch brining Naruto the heaven scroll they needed, along with what he suspected to be Kin's spare pants.

'Hmm...thong. he noted, shooting the long haired kunoichi a look, 'she's got taste at least.'

Just as he was about to continue his theory he sensed an approaching figure, wincing as he recognised the chakra signature of the female proctor from before.

'I doubt letting them know I can use the Shodai's jutsu would be wise," the teen predicted, dragging Sasuke out over his shoulder whilst a clone carried Sakura, promptly dispelling the house, 'better move.'

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Anko, accompanied by her ANBU support, happened upon the three sound genin lying in what appeared to be a wooden cage, whilst the clearing was otherwise empty.

"Take these brats away for questioning." She muttered, wincing as her cursed seal throbbed. Her recent run in with her former sensei hadn't gone as well as she planned, and that went without the pain of having stabbed berself in the hand.

'Still,' she muttered, 'I wonder what happened to his arm...that wound looked way too fresh to have happened before the exam.'

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When Sasuke woke, up, it was to find Naruto carrying him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Another Naruto, running next to them, had Sakura in a similar position.

"You awake, sleeping beauty?" he heard the blonde ask, causing him to moan in reply as his head spun.

"I feel like shit." he muttered honestly, feeling bile rise in his mouth from those few words.

"You puke on me, and I'll castrate you with your own teeth." Naruto warned, though it was in a joking tone, which earned a laugh from the Uchiha.

When the bunshin felt Sakura move and moan he 'accidentally' hit her head off a branch, rendering the kunoichi unconscious once more. As a result, the trip was relatively quiet until they got to the tower, where the irrate kunoichi fiunally regained conciousness and would have made a scene had Sasuke not reminded her that the 'Insenitive blonde bastard.' as she put it had saved her life.

As it was, they were trying to figure out the connection between the scrolls and the tapestry, when Sasuke noted the smoke rising off the centre, slapping them to the floor, causing a figure to appear in a cloud of smoke.

"Iruka sensei…I see you're no longer yellow." Naruto commented teasingly, earning an amused glare from the chunin.

"Good to see you made it this far," the scarred man noted, "you're the second ones to arrive, other than the team from Suna."

Naruto nodded, glancing at Sasuke, "Could you get a medic in?" he asked, "Some snake freak attacked Sasuke in the woods, he's got this freaky hicky on his neck."

Sasuke snorted and showed the mark to the worried chunin, who agreed to have a medic sent in immediately. In the meantime, Naruto decided to catch up on his reading, giggling every time one of the series' infamous punch lines kicked in.

Sakura glared at the blonde whiom she blamed for 'stealing' her precious time with Sasuke, and tried to block out the giggling by grinding her teeth together and glaring anywhere but directly at him.

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Eventually, all the survivors made it there, the majority being made up by the rookie nine.

The hokage was going through one of his long-winded speeches, which Naruto only briefly listened into, eyeing the competition as he pretended to read his book.

'That guy with fuzzy brows looks like Hinata," he noted, eyeing a long haired genin with a handsome face, "he's definitely a Hyuuga at any rate, no mistaking those eyes.' He smiled at the boy as he looked at him, causing the Hyuuga to scowl.

'Who is this…person?' Neji thought, then shrugged, 'It doesn't matter, if I am his opponent, he is doomed to fail.'

He didn't notce guilty looks his cousin was sending towards the blonde, nor the leers said blonde sent back which caused the girl to flush.

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The first match between Sasuke and Akado Yoroi went fairly quickly, with Sasuke's sishi rendan having the larger genin carted off on a stretcher.

The next match between Shikamaru and Kabuto ended in a forfeit on Kabuto's part.

'Inner ear disorder my balls, this guy's hiding something' Naruto growled, glaring at the bespectacled gennin as he sauntered past, before ignoring him completely as the next match came up.

"Oh joy, Blondie versus Pinkie." He muttered, sitting down and stretching his arms with a yawn, "Wake me up in a few minutes." he asked Sasuke, who snorted offhandedly, rubbing his sore shoulder.

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When Sakura and Ino were dragged out of the arena by their respective teachers, Naruto shook his head in mild disgust.

"That was pitiful" he chastiused the glowering kunoichi, "seriously, are you two kunoichi or little schoolgirls?" He looked up at Kakashi and Asuma and frowned, "Great job guys, you're a credit to your class."

The two male jounin had the decency to look embarrassed, while Kurenai smirked to herself. Being a fellow kunoichi, she had been appaled at the standards that had been steadily dropping ever since Tenten had left the academy.

She had to admit, Gai may be an oddball, but he held no qualms when it came to gender, and Tenten was without a doubt one of the best Kunoichi of her generation, and bad done well under her bizzare sensei.

'If a little ribbing is enough to getr them to pull their socks up, i say tear away.' the genjutsu specialist muttered.

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The next match, between Tsurugi and Kankurou resulted in the elasticized genin forfeiting under penalty of death by puppet. Kankuro managed to make it appear as if it was hardly any problem at all, and actually boasted he could take on any opponent. That is until Naruto suggested he back up his boasts, and said he should start with Gaara.

Needless to say ther sand sibling backed down fairly quickly.

The next match came up Tenten versus Temari...and the results had quite an effect on the viewing public.

'Ouch…that had to hurt,' Naruto winced, watching the weapon's specialist's arms dangle weakly at her sides, 'the human spine was NOT meant to bend that way...'cept maybe in chapter thriteen...'

After being declared the winner, Temari made to toss the Konoha kunoichi into the wall, only to be stopped by two things. One being the sudden appearance of Rock Lee to catch her, and second, the kunai wielded at her throat.

"Long range attacks are easily countered by getting up close." Naruto muttered coldly, "Move, and I slice your throat wide open…trust me…not a nice way to die."

He ran his eye over the older blondes face and smirked, "Be a hell of a waste too." he noted, "Don't see many like you round here."

Only when the medics had taken Tenten did Naruto dispel his kage bunshin, leaving the blonde kunoichi shaking and mortally embarrased. He looked up at Gai and nodded.

"She should be fine," he noted, "Lee got to her before she hit…though maybe she should try to add some jutsus to her repertoire."

Before the beast could reply, Naruto and Kiba were called to the arena.

'Uzumaki Naruto...' he murmured, 'For you to show such concern to one you have never met...' he clenched his fist, 'You are truly a comrade of the leaf!'

"Gai sensei?" Lee asked, noting his hero's pose.

"Lee! From now on you are to consider Naruto a friend and rival!"

"OSSU!" the teen saluted, "I shall enbdeavor to face him with the same passion and youth he displayed in his assitance of Tenten!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"Bakas." Neji muttered, shivering as the two hugged.

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"Gotta say Kiba," Naruto noted, ignoring the sideshow up inthe stands, "I never could tell who was smarter, you or your dog."

"Screw you Naruto!" Kiba yelled, pointing at the teen in annoyance, "And put that book away, look at me Dammit!"

"Hmm? You say something?" Naruto asked, causing Kiba to shake in suppresed rage.

Kakashi chuckled as the Inuzuka began to twitch in irritation. 'I like this kid,' he thought in amusement, 'especially his taste in reading material.'

"You're dead Uzumaki!" Kiba roared, launching forwards using the quadruped jutsu. Much to his disappointment, the figure before him disappeared, leaving a log in it's place.

"That won't do," Naruto called out from behind the teen, "you made me lose my page…" Frowning he put the book away and cracked his joints.

"Kiba…that was a stupid thing to do," the blonde muttered, looking non-too pleased, "I'm going to use a jutsu on you that the Hokage knows quite well," he cast an amused look towards the venerable elder, "it ruined a years worth of paperwork after-all."

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Everyone saw the Hokage frown at this, and then winced as a look of horror crossed his features.

Kurenai frowned, 'A jutsu that defeated the hokage?' she wondered, 'This I have to see.'

Kakashi was of a similar mind as the genjutsu specialist, uncovering his sharingan to watch the match. 'Maybe I'll learn something useful about the kid.' he noted.

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Kiba snorted, "You're all talk, prove it!" he yelled, lunging forwards yet again, his companion on his heels.

"As you wish," Naruto replied with a smirk, before making a familliar seal, "Kage bunshin no jutsu!"

Around fifty different clones appeared and surrounded the Inuzuka, the teen was about to lash out when they transformed into…Kiba's brain shut down at the sight of a veritable wall of flesh.

"Kiba-kuuuuuuunnn…." They teased out, pouting, wrapping around the shocked teen like armorous octopi.

That was it, the poor boy was launched through the air as a result of a hemorrhage induced nosebleed…and he wasn't alone.

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The Hokage thanked the stars for quick reflexes, as he'd covered his eyes before the smoke had lifted. The other assorted males weren't so lucky, in fact due to Kakashi's mask, the blood had been forced to exit via his ears, the cycloptic jounin had fallen off the pedestal and face first into Anko's bosom.

As is to be expected, Anko didn't take this lightly, resulting in Kakashi being escorted away with a broken nose, though she did sneak a peak under his mask, slipping her number under it afterwards. Kurenai was likewise supporting Asuma and scowling at the blonde genin who was laughing his ass off.

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"The second of the Perverted series of jutsu," Naruto annonced, "the Harem no Jutsu!"

He bowed, loking up at the stunned audience in amusement, "The original was strong enough to take down the old man," he explained, before looking at the prone form of Kiba, "you should feel honored I'd use the second level on you."

With that he moved to the steps grinning down at a whining Akamaru. "Y'see, you really are the brains of the outfit." He said, scratching the puppy behind the ears, causing his feet to thump.

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Though elated at the fact her crush ahd gotten through the first round unscathed, Hinata couldn't help but feel a little put out by Naruto's tactics.

She may be a little shy, screw that, incredibly shy, but she was a woman, and there were certain things you didn't allow men to get away with.

And with that righteous thought in mind she gathered her courage and walked over to the bragging blonde and tapped his shoulder, drawing the attention of the assorted rookies, since it was a fact she'd never had the nerve to approach him before, let alone TOUCH him.

"Ano…Naruto-kun?" she asked, tapping him on the shoulder again. Naruto turned and raised an eyebrow; he could sense something was up. "Ano…that jutsu," the heiress murmured with a frown, "please don't use it again."

While the assorted Konoha shinobi were surprised to hear the shy Hyuuga demand anything of anyone, Naruto raised an eyebrow even higher, then caught the mutual sentiment amongst the female populace's glares and sighed.

"Relax," he assured the girl, "just a little tip to my days at the academy…it won't be coming out again." He smiled at her, "I give you my word Hinata…I just wanted to take the wind out of Kiba's sails."

The Hyuuga heiress let out a sigh, before blinking as she caught the mischevious look in the teen's eyes.

"You get points for being assertive though," Naruto added, "never thought I'd see that…it's kind of cute."

The Hyuuga flushed at this and lowered her head, missing the grin that graced the blonde's masked face, whilst in a corner, the other Hyuuga genin scowled at her.

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Naruto looked down at the arena, Hyuuga Neji, as the announcer had called him, had defeated Chouji quite soundly, and now Gaara of the sand was having way too much fun with Lee to be called a friendly match between nations.

**"No doubt about it, the Ichibi is sealed inside that boy."** Kyuubi muttered, causing his vessel to frown.

"Shukaku of the sand…the tanuki…guess this guy and I have a lot in common." He winced as the redhead crushed Lee's arm and leg, "Crap…overkill much?"

Sighing, he turned to watch as Shikamaru defeated his opponent, before cheering out as Hinata entered the arena to fight her own.

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'Hinata-sama,' Neji noted as he watched his cousin fight, 'you seem stronger than you were before.'

He shrugged eyeing his younger cousin in an aloof manner. 'Regardless, if we are to meet, you will feel the pain of the branch house.' Neji thought, watching as his younger cousin finished her opponent using basic Jyuken, the Hitai-ate on his forehead serving as an eternal reminder of the seal placed there.

Gai watched his charge cautiously, he knew Neji gave his word about the matter, but he couldn't be too careful since he knew the branch houses sense of fear and embarrassment; the hatred was strong in this one.

And somewhere, in a galaxy far far away, a Sith lord suffered from a sneezing fit, that enabled a certain former Jedi to throw him down a shaft, saving his son.

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"Congratulations toall of you who passed through to the finals," Sarutobi muttered, "I will now ask you to draw lots."

Once everyone had done so, Naruto eyeing a rather miffed Anko with an appreciative leer, Ibiki smirked, holding up a piece of paper.

"Right, look carefully, people." he ordered, "In a month's time, you're going to be fighting again.

Round one: Uzumaki Naruto-Hyuuga Neji.

Round two: Gaara-Uchiha Sasuke.

Round three: Aburame Shino-Kankurou.

Round four: Temari-Nara Shikamaru.

Round five: Hyuuga Hinata-winner of round four.

"I'll see you all in a month's time," Sarutobi called out, "until then, train hard!"

He looked at Naruto, eyeing the blonde appreciatively, recalling his performance in the exam.

'He didn't use any special techniques in the arena,' he noted, 'in fact; he merely used an improved version of his Orioke jutsu. Seems Genkai taught him restraint and tact at least.' Thinking of Genkai he shuffled uncomfortably, 'I hope she never finds out about me being beaten by that jutsu.'

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Hinata was walking out the door when a hand landed on her shoulder, looking up she saw a smiling Kurenai looking down at her.

"You did well Hinata," the woman offered proudly "I hope you do as well in the finals."

"No need to hope, Hinata-chan will do well." Naruto said, coming up behind them, earning a squeak from Hinata. "Kaka-teme's off training Sasuke," he explained at the jounin's look, "and no doubt old man Sarutobi's off trying to flirt with my real sensei…so I figured I'd make good on my promise to Hinata."

Kurenai raised an eyebrow in confusion, noticing that Hinata seemed really flushed, but unlike most times, she was still on her feet.

Naruto nodded towards Kurenai and the offered his arm to her charge, "Shall we?" he asked, to which Hinata merely nodded, taking the offered arm.

With that, the two left a promptly flummoxed Kurenai behind, one grinning like the foxes on his armguards, the other resembling a ripe tomato.

As she got over her shock, Kurenai smiled, feeling as proud as if Hinata was her own daughter.

'Good for you, Hinata.' Kurenai thought, before going off in search of Asuma.

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Sasuke looked over at Kakashi as he walked. The cycloptic jounin was looking a little dazed, as if there was something on his mind. "Kakashi…are you okay?" the Uchiha asked, looking up at the jounin in mild concern.

Kakashi winced; smiling at the Uchiha to assure him he was fine, inwardly cursing.

'If Obito ever saw that…' he shivered rubbing his Hitai-ate, 'I suppose he DID in a sense…' he shook his head, trying to rid the image of Naruto's Female form's…assets.

'Even Tsunade-sama would be jealous,' he noted, before his eyes shut with a snap as the image of the sannin joined Naru-chan in his minds eye, 'DAMMIT!'

For the first time in history, Kakashi cursed the sharingan's ability to permanently record everything it saw into the user's brain.

* * *

Well now, this is an interesting turn of events?

How will the date go?

Will Kakashi stop fantasizing about the oiroke no jutsu and sunade long enough to train Sasuke properly?

Tune in to find out!


	10. Chapter 10

At last! The long anticipated date between Konoha's princess and the prince of thieves! Will Naruto steal her heart?

Tune in to find out!

* * *

Chapter ten

Unaware, and mostly like uncaring, of the trauma that a certain copy-nin was undergoing as his perverted streak turned against him, the rest of Konoha was getting on with there merry little lives.

Shino was training with his father, which meant that the two had gone deep into the Aburame territoy forest and would not likely reappear for weeks on end.

Shikamaru was being dragged by an oh-so-pushy Ino to the training fields, claiming he needed a head start on preparing for the finals, to which the teen merely moaned.

Neji was training with Tenten, the two of them pitting Hyuuga-ryu taijutsu against Tenten's uncanny ability to spear a fly from 500 paces, blindfolded. At the moment, it could go either way, Neji being lower on chakra from the fight with Chouji, though Tenten was also recovering from the fight with Temari.

And as for our favourite blonde hellraiser? He's currently walking arm in arm with the Hyuuga heiress, fullfilling his promise of a date.

Now if only Hinata would stop thinking this is some sort of dream we'd be in business.

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"I have to admit, this is the first date I've ever been on." Naruto admitted, scratching the back of his head in mild embarassment, "So what say you decided where we go?"

Hinata flushed, not exactly used to decision making, before pointing at a restaurant that she'd been to with her team, a nice little place with good food and company. Naruto followed the direction of her gaze and whistled, looking impressed. "Good choice." he praised, earning a flush from the heiress as they made their way, still arm in arm, through the doorway.

A waiter, not much older than the two shinobi, looking up at the sound of the bell, "AH! Welcome back miss Hyuuga!" he greeted, smiling in an open, friendly manner, noting with some interest the unkown shinobi on the heiress' arm, before leading them to a free table.

"Will you be having the special again?" he asked, pulling out his notepad and pen as the heiress took her seat, "I garuntee that it's just as good as last time."

Hinata nodded, before looking at Naruto as the blonde ran his eyes down the menu. "I'll have it too." he added, setting the menu down and nodding up at the man, "If Hinata recomends it of course."

Hinata flushed and nodded, earning a raised eyebrow from the waiter as he took down the order. He looked the two over carefully, filing away the heiress' obvious embarassment for future conversational intrest, before nodding and taking his leave, leaving the two were alone for a while.

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"Thought he'd never leave." Naruto sighed, shaking his head in exasperation, "I think I may have damaged your reputation there." He joked, sending a sly look towards his flushing date.

"N-no," she countered, "I-it's nothing Naruto-kun." she twiddled her fingers and smiled, "S-so long as I'm with you, I d-don't really care...what anyone says."

Hinata stopped in mid stutter as she noticed the blonde gazing at her warmly, earning yet another flush as she looked away shyly.

"You know," Naruto began conversationaly, "the first time I saw you, I wondered if you were one of Sasuke's fans." He laughed softly as Hinata looked up, shocked, "Y'see, I was that used to people looking past me at him, I never expected to have an admirer myself." He grinned in that distinctive vulpine manner of his. "Especially not one so cute."

Hinata flushed at this, and looked down, only to look up as Naruto chuckled, the heiress felt her heart pick up at the sound, but couldn't bring herself to look at him out of embarassment.

"Do you know how unbearably cute you are when you do that?" Naruto asked, smiling at her, "It was the first thing that popped into my head when you saw me off." He reached up and cupped her chin again, rubbing his thumb against her smooth skin, before blinking and fingering one of her bangs."You grew your hair out a little." he noticed, loooking into her eyes inquisitively.

Hinata flushed, "Ano…Kurenai-sensei has kept us busy over the last few months," she looked away, worried that Naruto wasn't fond of long haired girls, "S-so I haven't had time to cut it…so…"

"There's no need to panic around me Hinata," Naruto cut in, placing a finger on her lips to stop her, smirking as she lit up like a candle, "go ahead and let your guard down…I'll never hurt you." He gave her one of his fox like grins from behind the mask, "Unless…you WANT me to of course."

"Ahem."

The two looked up to espy the waiter from before, two steaming plates of food in each hand.

"I trust I'm not disturbing anything?"

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Hinata, feeling both relieved and annoyed at the man's timing, was nontheless glad their food had arrived, as it took their minds off the previous subject for a while, giving her time to recover. Naruto on the other hand, shot the man a look of restrained annoyance, before thanking him for the service and tucking into the food, reaching up to lower his mask.

Hinata looked up as he lowered the face cloth, revealing a series of bandages that covered his cheeks, hiding the tell-tale whisker marks she was so fond of. She blinked as she felt someone looking at her, only to look up into the amused eyes of her date.

"Like what you see?" Naruto asked, causing her to flush, before shaking herself slightly and looking at him inquisitively.

"Ano…why are…"

Hinata stopped when Naruto seized his chance and dropped a piece of food into her mouth with chopsticks, grinning at her the entire time. "You're right, this is good." the blonde commented, smiling at the shocked Hyuuga teasingly, "Though I can think of a lot of things that taste better."

Hinata flushed magenta, and lowered her head to focus on her meal. All the while, the restaurant staff were watching the couple carefully, filing the scene into their memories for later use.

After all, a restaurant is run not only by the quality of it's food and service, but on the quality of the conversation articles available. The Hyuuga heiress on a date with an unkown, admittedly cute teen, was every fishwives dream come true.

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"That was good." Naruto said, as they walked down the street, the blonde having just payed for the meal, Hinata holding onto his arm as the y walked along, "How about I take you somewhere nice?" he asked, "It's a place I used to go to think."

Hinata nodded softly, resting her head on his arm happily. The meal had filled her up, and she felt all warm inside, that and the comforting scent of leaves and fox which she realised was Naruto's scent, was slowly lulling her into a happy daze.

'Naruto-kun,' she whispered longingly, eyes slowly closing, 'I wish time would just stop right now…'

"Hinata," her beloved's voice called out through the fog, causing her to blink and look up, "I can't feel my arm." Naruto chastised gently, a smile in his eyes causing the girl to flush.

Hinata loosened her grip, but didn't let go, the two of them walking down the street, ignorant of the looks people were giving them.

Naruto gazed down at the heiress and smiled, inhaling the scent of lavender and siolk that came off her, ruffling her hair slightly in the process. 'She's so damn cute.' he muttered, 'She's going to be a stunner when she grows up.'

He smirked as he felt a jealous rush rise in the back of his skull, canines catching the dying sunlight.

'Too bad foxes aren't known for sharing.'

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Hinata blinked, as she noticed the two were apparently walking up the mountain path to the Hokage monument, more acurately, up one of the more off-road routes which were full of plants and vines.

"I found this place when I was little," Naruto explained, pushing aside a tree branch to let the Hyuuga pass unhindered, "I used to come here and think…or train."

Hinata looked around at what appeared to be a clearing, surrounded by thick trees; there was a small lake to the side, a row of trees with target boards and, surprisingly a little wooden hut.

As if sensing her confusion, Naruto grinned, "In case I felt like sleeping over." he explained, nodding at the hut, before taking her through the trees and, surprisingly, onto the Shodai hokage's head.

"I found this place after joining the academy," the blonde admitted, "I felt my old apartment had worn itself out, and what better place to camp out than right under everyone's noses." he lookd out over the village and chuckled, "Well, sort of."

He turned to the amazed heiress and smiled, "If you want," he offered, "it can be 'our' place."

Hinata flushed magenta and began to stutter, only to blink as he placed a finger to her lips, causing her to look up at him in surprise.

"Relax," Naruto said soothingly, lowering his face to hers, the mask lowered again, "I'm not forcing this on you…Hinata."

The two locked lips again, far from the gaze of others, the setting sun adding a warm glow to the scene. And for the first time since she enterred the forest of death, Hinata felt completely at ease.

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Hinata, after being escorted back to the Hyuuga complex, entered through the main family's house, making her way to her room as quickly as possible. She could still rember the feeling of Naruto's lips on her own, and itwas enough to cause a warm glow to settle on her, subconciously adding a spring to her step.

"Hinata." A voice called out, freezing her in place. Turning round revealed the tall, composed form of her father, Hiashi, as he walked up behind her, "I heard about your victory at the semi-finals," the Hyuuga head commented, walking past her towards his own room, "Keep up the good work."

Bowing to the man respectfully, Hinata was, internally, overjoyed. First Naruto took her out on a date, and now her father was acknowledging her. The girl was literally on cloud nine and would have gone to bed a happy person had not one other person appeared in the hallway.

"Hinata-sama."

Hinata froze, before turning round to face the source of the voice, revealing the familiar cold features of her older cousin, as he made his way towards her. "N-neji-nisan?" she asked, wincing as the stutter, which had been absent most of the evening, made it's treacherous way into her voice.

"If I face you in the finals," the older Hyuuga promised, walking past her in a cold, aloof manner, "I will not hold back."

Hinata stood in the hallway as her Brother left, before trembling slightly, her hands wringing together in concern.

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Yamanaka Ino sighed as she left the hospital, having just come from a visit to her father, who was still recovering from his near fatal heart attack.

The blonde had no idea what had set her father off like that, it had been a simple enough question, but the Yamanaka patriarch had reacted as if she'd announced she was pregnant. When she confronted her mother about it, the woman had merely flushed and told her to go to her room.

"Problems in paradise?" A voice called out, prompting her to blink and look up, spotting a familiar masked face looking down at her, from an electical pole, "Yo."

"YOU!" Ino yelled, pointing up at the teen in righteous fury, "You're that masked perv that's corrupting Sasuke kun!"

"Guilty as charged," Naruto commented, taking a bow, whilst still upside down, "And you're that cute blonde with the black lace panties right?" he whistled as Ino flushed and looked round to se if anyone was listening, "Gotta tell ya, they suit you to a tee."

"URUSEI!" Ino hissed, flushing scarlet in embarassment, despite the fact the street was deserted, "Flattery will get you nowhere! I'll kill you for what you did to Sasuke-Kun and me!"

"Really?" A voice behind her asked, causing her to freeze and turn slightly, to reveal Naruto, reading Icha-Icha violence, "You really think you can kill me?" He turned one calm, almost amused eye to her and smiled behind the mask, "By all means, do try."

Ino leapt back and pulled a kunai out of the holster on her side, rearing it back for a throw, only for a hand to grab her arm, holding it in place from behind. "You telegraphed that move for miles to see." Naruto chastised, still reading from his book, "If you're going to use Kunai and shuriken, it's best to make use of the surroundings, or better yet, a distraction."

Ino spun, aiming a back kick to the teen's nuts, which he quickly avoided, hurling the kunai as she spun to face him, Naruto turned counter clockwise, snapping a hand out to catch the kunai as it sailed past.

"That was pointless." he muttered, "I told you, use a distract-eh?"

The jinchuuriki blinked as he felt his fingers grow hot, before cursing and tossing the kunai skywards before the explosive tag wrapped around the handle went off.

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'Not bad.' Naruto admitted, smoke trailing off his hands from the tag, 'Though I suppose I should expect no less from a member of the Ino-Shika-Cho, that team excelled at diversions and counter attacks.' He looked around, noting with some satisfaction that the blonde had concealed herself, "And now you have me right where I want you."

"Shintenshin no jutsu!"

Naruto smirked and made a quick handseal, placing two fingers to his forehead as he felt the telltale signs of of a sencond mind in his skull. 'Tou-san,' he stated, 'allow me to handle this alone.'

**'Try not to break her.'** Kyuubi commented, **'This one has a lot of spunk.'**

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Ino smirked as she activated her jutsu, knowing the blonde had no chance once she was inside his skull.

'I'll have him run naked through the streets, or maybe even moon the Hokage.' Ino cackled, 'Better yet! I'll just make him jump off a cliff!' she blinked as, instead of looking out through the masked blonde's eyes, she found herself gazing onto a field of white.

"Wh-where the hell am I?!" she yelled, looking round as her voice echoed, "What the hell did you do you bastard!"

"Such harsh word's from such a pretty face." Naruto's voice replied, echoing from all directions, "Perhapse all roses DO poses thorns after all."

Ino reached for her Kunai pouch, eyeing the surroundings warily, "Show yourself!" she called out, "Or are you a coward!" she frowned as a sigh echoed around the whiteness.

"First rule of the shinobi," Naruto's voice chastised, before a hand settled over her own, and an arm warapped around her from behind, "Never leave your back ungaurded."

Ino jumped but found herself incapable of moving as the blonde's hand gently, yet firmly, pulled her own away from the pouch, "Let me go!" she yelled, only to flinch as she felt something blow across the nape of her neck. "S-stop that!"

"Hmm? Stop what?" Naruto asked, leaning closer to the blonde's ear, tickling it with his breath, "perhapse...this?"

Ino shivered as he repeated the action, sending a shiver along her nape and down her spine. "S-stop." she gasped, though there was a tremble in it which caused her to wince. she pawed at his hand to get himto release her, only to blink as he trapped it beneath his own.

"I certainly do envey Sasuke." Naruto commented, "even at the academy you were hot stuff." He grinneed and plessed a pint on her arm, earning a shivery intake of breath, "Nice to see some flowers bloom over time."

Ino gasped as he breathed in, the air causing her neck to shiver, as his hands, still covering her won, moved to stroke her sides, armks crossed. She let out a gasp as she felt somethig nip at her neck, sending another jolt of pleasure down her spine.

"I'd be carefull if I were you." Naruto warned, whispering itno her ear, "A girl with looks like yours should never walk alone at night...you never know what might follow you home."

Ino gasped as he pressed her own fingers against two points on her waist, sending yet another thrill up her spine, the blonde kunoichi feeling a little weak at the knees.

"H-howdid you..." she tried to say, only to gasp as he nibbled at her neck, causing her to arch her back.

"Genjutsu: Yorokobi no jutsu." Naruto replied, "It's a genjutsu that targets the pleasure centres in the brain, and since you're currently occupying my mind, you're the one feeling the effects, rather than myself." He smirked and moved the girl's hands to trail up her on side, sending shivers up her back the enitre time, "Quite effective, wouldn't you say?"

Ino gasped as she felt her head fill with a light fog, just as Naruto freed one of his hands, trailing a finger up her neck, ever so slowly. The jinchuuriki grined, his fangs, glistening slightly, before nipping the side of her neck, drawing blood and earning a shudder from the girl.

"I'm afraid I'll have to cut this short." Naruto stated, "Your body can't last long on it's own, and I dare say your chakra's running low." he trailed a claw into the blood, drawing a spiral on the side of the girl's neck, causing it to glow slightly as he withdrew his claw, "So I'll just leave something for you to remember me by."

Ino would have said something but at that moment her knees gave out and she fell to the ground, the blinding white giving way to a blissful darkness.

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Ino gasped and sat up in bed, gasping for breath as she held the covers in her hands.

'A dream?' she whispered, looking out to see the sun just peaking out from the horizon, letting out a sigh of relief, 'Thank god...what a strange dream.' She blinked, noticing the sheets beneath her seemed a little...damper than usual, and that her neck seemed to be itching.

Sighing and deciding to hget a head start on training, the blonde climbed out of bed and made her way to the shower, figuring she had enough time to change the sheets and dress before her mother came to wake her up.

As she was getting undressed, something in the mirror caught her eye, causing her to blink and lift a hand to her neck, tracing the strange, spiral tattoo she didn't remember having before.

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It was shortly after 9:00, about the same time it takes for everything to get underway in the leaf village. All around people were going about their affairs, selling talking shopping or completing tedious D-rank missions because the citizens were too lazy to get off their asses.

Naruto, having been up just before dawn, was meditating ontop of the lake to improve his chakra control when he sensed someone approaching. Frowning slightly, he increased his breaths until he caught the figures scent, smiling internally as he caught the familliar scent of lavender and silk.

"Hinata?" he called, and was rewarded by the Hyuuga stepping out of the shrubbery. "What can I do for you?" he asked, stepping up and walking to the shore, clothes dry despite his position on the water.

"Ano," Hinata began, tapping her finbgers together, "could I…train with you?" she asked, looking him in the eyes.

Naruto raised an eyebrow before looking at her inquisitively, "Why not train with your family?" he asked, watching her wince at this, "That bad huh?"

Hinata sighed, only to look up as Naruto smiled, moving into a stance. "Come at me for real," the blonde urged her, "because your opponents won't be as gentle as I am."

Hinata looked up in surprise, before smiling, moving into her Jyuken stance.

"A-arigatou!"

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Several weeks later, and the two had set up quite a regimen.

They would train together, then Hinata would go train with her team, or family, then they'd go out, sometimes to Ichiraku, or just around town.

Slowly but surely, Hinata was becoming a more open person, though Naruto still knew how to make her blush. In fact, though he'd never admit it, he felt as if the girl was slowly but surely blossoming before his eyes.

'If she continues to develop I wouldn't hesitate to ask for her hand,' the blonde noted, 'along with everything else of course.' He added, and then he grinned as the thought gave him an idea.

"Hinata…want to make a deal?" he asked, looking over at the girl as she caught her breath, "If you and I fight in the tournament, and you win…I'll do whatever you want." he looked her in the eyes and grinned, "ANYTHING."

Hinata flushed at the implied meaning in the boy's sentence, "And if you win?" she asked, trying not to sound nervous as Naruto grinned.

"Then you have to agree," he began, pausing for effect, "to be at my side forever."

Hinata flushed, as once again Naruto presented her with a win-win situation, one that she never dreamed would happen. "Deal." She said, holding out a hand, flushing when, instead of shaking it, Naruto kissed it.

"I always keep my word Hinata," the blonde shinobi vowed, "that's my nindo."

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Sarutobi chuckled as he looked into the crystal ball, Genkai to his right. "Makes you feel nostalgic, doesn't it?" he asked, puffing on his pipe.

Genkai snorted, "Change the channel." She muttered, "I'm missing the wrestling at five."

Sarutobi sweatdropped as he looked the old reiki master carefully.

"This isn't cable television you know."

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Well now isn't this interesting? How will Naruto and Hinata's promise work out? What will Ino make of this bizzare tattoo? Could it have some deeper meaning?

Genjutsu: Yorokobi no jutsu: Illusion: Rapture no jutsu.

One of Naruto's personalised jutsus which he designed with Kyuubi's help. As he explained, it affect's the pleasure centres of the target's brain, in this case, it amplifies the pleasure one would get from certain preassure points along their body. Think of it as a 'foreplay' jutsu.

* * *


	11. Chapter 11

There is an old saying, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Well hopefully all you devoted fans are still as fond of me after my absence, but just in case, here's the latest installment of Naruto's misadventures in playboy-ism!

* * *

Chapter eleven

Several months passed, during which the chunin hopefulls ran themselves into the ground prepoaring to meet their destiny's in the arena. Shikamaru trained extensively with his father. Shino reappeared the day before and assited Hinata wiuth her own training. The sand-siblings readied their equipment for the event, Gaara sating his thirst for blood by torturing defenceless animals.

And as for Naruto? It was quite common to see the teen balancing on one finger over an extremely sharp spike, a blue light sparking slightly under his as he performed push-ups.

Finally, after much suffering, training and a decrease in the local cat population, the match finals for the chunin exams began.

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"Where the hell is Sasuke?" Naruto muttered, eyeing the stands in annoyance, "Don't tell me he picked up Kaka-teme's habits…he'll die a virgin otherwise."

Hinata giggled at this, having heard similar mutterings from Kurenai about the cycloptic jounin; if there was one thing the genjutsu specialist valued, it was punctuality. Looking over at her elder cousin Hinata flinched, his byakugan were glaring holes through her, like a white-eyed hawk.

Reflexively, she stepped closer to Naruto who frowned and looked up at the elder Hyuuga, reaching down to take her hand as he did. "Something wrong Hinata?" he asked, knowing full well what the problem was.

Before the girl could reply, Genma cut in with the announcements.

"The matches will begin in a matter of moments," the senbon chewer announced, "could Hyuuga Neji and Uzumaki Naruto please enter the ring."

Naruto grinned at Hinata and moved for the exit, "Tell me later," he stated, placing a finger to the worried girl's lips, "I'll try not to hurt your cousin…too badly." he walked past the flushing heiress, trailing his fingers against her own before bowing to Neji and gesturing for him to go first, "After you, Hyuuga-san."

Neji sniffed and moved through the door, sending a last glare at his cousin.

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"Watch closely Hanabi," Hiashi instructed, having brought his youngest daughter to learn from the matches, "the Hyuuga blood has never flown so strongly in anyone like it does Neji, not even your sister."

"Yes father." Hanabi stated calmly, watching impassively as her cousin walked out onto the field, her eyes widening as a blonde haired youth followed. 'Who's that?' she wondered, 'Is that the person Onee-cahn was talking about?'

A light flush covered the girl's cheeks, before she shook herself, wondering where on earth it came from.

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"Before we begin," Neji announced, pointing at Naruto smugly, "let me tell you right now, you have no chance of defeating me."

Naruto snorted, rubbing a finger in his ear as he pretended to ignore the teen. "Genkai-shihan once told me: whatever happens, happens." He smirked at the older Hyuuga, "Either I beat you…or you beat me."

"It is destined that I defeat you," Neji replied with a smirk, " The Hyuuga clan is the strongest of the leaf, a weakling like yourself wouldn't stand a chance against the dregs, let alone a prodigy."

"That may be true," Naruto noted with a shrug, "if your power is greater than mine, fighting you would be suicide on my part." He lowered his gaze for a moment. "However…if your power is LESS than mine…" Naruto raised his head, and Neji could see the feral grin in the teen's eyes, "Then I just have to beat you…that's how I see it."

"I see," Neji commented, frowning at the blonde's open bravado, as he got into a standard Jyuuken stance, "then you're a fool."

Genma grunted, taking a step back as he sensed the stupidity in getting caught up in the clash of these two hotheads.

"The match will begin…now!"

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As soon as the man's hand dropped, Neji moved into a Jyuken stance and prepared to attack. Naruto, contrary to expected belief, leaped back at least five feet and moved into a stance as well.

'Jyuken is a close combat fighting style,' Genma commented with a nod, 'and the internal damage to the chakra coils would seriously hinder anyone's progress.' He looked at Naruto, noting the distance carefully, 'he'll need to stick to long range attacks, but the byakugan has those covered.' He blinked as the blonde flipped through a set of familiar seals, eyes widening in shock.

"What the-?"

Naruto slammed through a series of seals, pausing on the tiger sear before inhaling as deeply as possible, actually causing his ribcage to expand outwards; he pulled his mask down and opened his mouth wide.

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Up in the stands, the hokage's eyes widened as he stared down atthe youth in utter disbelief.

'Where did he learn a technique of that caliber?!' he wondered, 'Genkai certainly couldn't have taught that to him!'

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"KATON: KARYUUENDAN!"

A massive stream of fire blasted from the blonde's mouth, aimed right at the Hyuuga prodigy. Neji's eyes widened in horro at the sight of the flames, spinning on his heel sharply, cauing a blue dome of chakra to form around him.

"KAITEN!"

To the amazement of the crowd, and especially the Hyuugas, Neji performed the main house's technique flawlessly. As the stream of fire continued though, it was apparent that the prodigy wouldn't be able to keep it up for long.

Fortunately, Naruto dropped the jutsu, since he ran out of breath, being only a teenager, his lung capacity paled in comparison to that of an adult. Neji, a little unsteady after performing the technique for so long, glared at the blonde as he chuckled.

"So that's the Kaiten, I've heard so much about," Naruto commented offhandedly, pulling up his mask "I'm impressed, I didn't think you'd have THAT up your sleeve." He cracked his neck joints, "Took Hinata half a month to learn how to do it…though she gets dizzy afterwards."

Neji stared at him in shock, "Hinata-sama cannot perform the Kaiten," he stated, unwilling to accept it, "she is too weak."

"And branch house members aren't even ALLOWED to be taught it…yet you know it." Naruto countered, "Besides, after training with her for a while, I KNOW she isn't weak…just a little lacking in confidence."

"Ravings," Neji countered with a smirk "she is weak, and nothing will prove it otherwise."

Naruto scowled, looking the older teen in the eyes for several moments, before sighing and shaking his head, scratching the back. "Hinata told me," he explained, "all about the mark on your head."

Neji's eyes opened wide in shock as he saw the lack of emotion in Naruto's eyes, the blonde brushing his hair out of his face.

"She could never forgive herself when she found out, that you'd received the 'caged-bird' seal when she turned three," Naruto continued, "she feels as if she put it there herself." He looked up at Hinata in the fighters' booth, where the worried heiress was looking down at them in concern.

"Hinata isn't like the rest of the main house," Naruto stated, glaring at Neji for emphasis, "you know that more than anyone." he held up a finger, "And it's not because she's weak, its because, unlike them, she openly cares for the members of the branch family."

Naruto smirked, thumbing in the direction of the heiress as Neji looked between them in shock, "You know what her greatest dream was, before she found out about you? To become a respectable member of the family." he shrugged, shaking his head in dismissal, "After you were branded though, she changed it."

Naruto's gaze locked onto Neji's, and the older Hyuuga, despite the shaking in his spine, swallowed, "What do I care in the dreams of a weakling?" he all ut yelled, only to flinch as Naruto's eyes locked onto his own

"That 'weakling' as you call her," the blonde growled, "dreams of banning the use of the seal, permanently."

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Neji's eyes widened so far the veins could be seen, he looked up at the booth where his cousin was looking down. They looked at each other, Byakugan gazing into Byakugan, as shock gave way to confusion, and then to awe, as Hinata stared at her cousin with nothing but concern and caring.

'Hinata-sama…' Neji wondered, 'You...from the very begining...' he continued to stare at his gentle cousin in disbelief, 'After all I've done...why?'

"I personally don't think the elders will take that with a pinch of salt," Naruto commented, snapping the Hyuuga out of his daze as he stood with heis arms behind his head, "so I'll make a deal with you; If you beat me, you can ask whatever you want."

Neji frowned, using his byakugan to check Naruto's eyes, 'he's telling the truth', he deduced, before glaring at the blonde interestedly, "And…if YOU win?"

Neji swore he could FEEL the grin under the mask, the distinct feeling that he'd been tricked into entering a fox's den.

"Then you have to help Hinata change the Hyuuga," Naruto called out, pointing at the teen, "and I'll remove the seal on your head."

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The whole arena fell silent, watching as the two combatants watced each other carefully. Hiashi was gripping the rails of his seat in concernl, wondering just how far Neji was willing to go for his revenge. Then Neji snorted, shaking his head in disbelief.

"You're bluffing," the prodigy accused, tapping his headband for emphasis, "this seal cannot be removed." He frowned as Naruto chuckled, then flinched as his headband was cut in half, the pieces falling off his head.

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'That was my Kaze no yaiba!' Baki noted in alarm, 'but he didn't move his arm!'

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"Put a little faith in people," Naruto said with a smile "fate has a nasty habit of being overrated."

He then disappeared in a flash of yellow, re-appearing right in front of the Hyuuga, his hand surrounded by red chakra. Before Neji could react, Naruto slammed two fingers into the Hyuuga's forehead, actually going up to the second knuckle, yet the skin didn't break.

"KAI!"

There was the sound of shattering crystal, and Neji felt something odd happen to his forehead. The next second, he was sprawled out on his back, gasping for breath.

"What-?" he asked, gasping, looking at the blonde kneeling next to him. In response, the teen pulled a mirror out of his pocket and showed it to the Hyuuga, causing his eyes to widen in disbelief.

Neji's forehead was bare; the infernal mark of the curse was gone, leaving only pale, unblemished skin.

"Like I told Hinata," Naruto stated, putting the mirror back in his pocket, "I always keep my word." he grinned as he pointed down at the shocked Hyuuga "This is the only freebie I'm giving you though, so don't bother trying for another."

Neji was about to try to sit up when he realized his body felt like lead, unable to even raise himself up. "Sorry," Naruto offered with a grin, "the technique drains almost all the chakra from the target." he held up a ahdn as Neji's eyes widened, "Relax, you're not gonna die, but you'll have a hard time moving for about…fifteen minutes."

He waved to Genma, "Get a stretcher in here would ya?" he called out, "This guy needs medical attention!"

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As Neji was carted away he looked up at the sky, a single bird flying towards the sun.

'Uzumaki…Naruto.' he thought, recalling the blonde's grinning face under the mask. 'Thank you.' He twitched slightly, feeling something heavy in his hair; frowning at an oddly shaped kunai he found there.

"What's this?"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Sarutobi was stumped, unable to comprehend what he had just seen a moment ago.

'That was Arashi's Hiraishin technique,' he noted, 'the advanced form of shunshin that only the yondaime ever performed…it earned him the title of 'yellow flash'.' Looking at Genkai, sitting in the crowds and smirking, he chuckled.

'And that last jutsu…I see Genkai's way with seals is as gifted as ever.'

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The fight between Sasuke and Gaara of the sand was postponed at the kazekage's request, and Kankurou opted to forfeit, rather than risk the plan by revealing karasu's abilities. Before the crowd began to cry out for blood, Temari stepped in, using her fan to get to the arena floor, earning an appreciative 'OOOH' from the slack-jawed crowd.

"Hey you, the sloth," she called out, pointing at Shikamaru, "get your ass down here so I can kick it."

Shikamaru winced, since 'sloth' had been a certain blonde's nickname for him at the academy. "Mendokuse," he whined, "I don't feel like doing this…" he turned to see who tapped him on the shoulder, to see a VERY scary looking Naruto looming over him.

"_GET GOING._"

Shikamaru practically threw himself into the arena to escape the owner of the face; it was that terrifying. Gaara actually raised both eyebrows out of shock. Shino's glasses cracked.

"Decided to show yourself?" Temari asked, raising an eyebrow at the aura of evil eminating from the fighter's booth.

Shikamaru snorted shakily, "I'd rather face you than THAT." He said, refusing to look up at the booth.

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An ANBU in the stands raised an eyebrow behind his mask. 'That was my 'demonic face' jutsu,' he noted visibly surprised, 'I wonder how he learned that?'

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Regardless, Temari and Shikamaru's fight lasted quite a while, the crafty Konoha genin using the terrain to his advantage. However, Shikamaru's pitiful chakra supply eventually led to his loss via forfeit, however the Suna kunoichi was also low on chakra, as a result of several kamaitachi blasts that she'd let off. So when she was asked to remain in the ring and fight the Hyuuga, she was naturally pissed off as shebwatched the heiress enter the ring.

Hinata, still shaken up from the fight between Naruto and Neji, took a breath to steady herself. 'Naruto-kun…Neji-nisan…watch me!'

"Hyuuga Hinata versus Temari," Genma called out, "Fight!"

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Well now, how far has little hinata progressed? The Hyuuga are famous for three things, their strength, their grace and their natural beauty. Hinata has been blessed with the lions share of the latter, but has training with Naruto brought the other two up to par?

And don't worry, there'll be more action soon!

Author's note:

I've seemed to missplaced my notes for who's in the harem, so I regret that I must once again hold a survey to see who gets in.

Hinata, Ino, Anko and Sasame are definately in, I recall that much at least, but please list any of the others you like.

Note: Kurenai is NOT to be included, for reasons read the recent Shippuden chapters. Try to not include any Anime OC's, the only reason I'm doing Sasame is out of popular demand.

And for the last bloody time NO! Yukina is NOT part of the harem! She's with Kuwabara, DEAL WITH IT!

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	12. Chapter 12

Been a while hasn't it? No doubt sdome oif you are sick of me by now. So as to appease those who would harm me, here's the latest chapter for all you happy people!

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Chapter twelve.

Temari moved to put some distance between herself and the Hyuuga, knowing quite well that they relied purely on their Taijutsu, with very little ninjutsu. And normally this would be the case, were it not for Naruto's training regimen.

As it were, the minute the fight began, Hinata hurled a slew of kunai at the blonde kunoichi, only for Temari to dodge them as if they weren't there. Unbeknownst to the kunoichi though, that was exactly what Hinata wanted. As soon as the last kunai left her fingers she pulled all her fingers together into the snake seal, before pulling her hands apart sharply.

Abruptly, the Kunai changed direction in midair, aimed at the blonde. Temari used her fan to block them, but in the process blocked her view of Hinata. Cursing at the folly, the eldest sand sibling moved the fan out of the way, only to curse as she discovered Hinata had made use of the time to vanish.

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"What the hell was that?" Shikamaru muttered, frowning down into the arena in confusion, "The Kunai just changed direction in mid-air...Isn't that impossible?"

"Chakra strings." Naruto replied with a snort, "Not unlike what our black clothed friend uses to control those oversized dolls of his." he added, tilting his head towards Kankurou.

The puppet-master began to froth at the mouth at the thinly veiled insult, but kept silent, mainly because he didn't want to agitate his younger brother. Gaara, however, was ingoring his brother in favor of his fellow Jinchuuriki.

'He'd defeated the Hyuuga prodigy so easily' the redhead muttered, eyeing the blonde warily, 'this one…is dangerous.'

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Temari used her closed fan like a staff to block several kunai, only to curse as Hinata burst from the shrubbery behind her, palms glowing with Chakra. "Hyaku Retsu Sho!" the heiress cried out launching into one of the many Hyuuga styles, the hundred palm strike. While being nowhere near as deadly or effective as the infamous 128 strikes, it still meritted enough attention to be avoided.

Temari grimaced flipping the fan open and sheltering behind it. While her fan managed to act as a shield, it was clear the older kunoichi was at a disadvantage in close-quarters combat. Leaping back to put some distance between them, she moved to swing her fan ready to cut the heiress down with a kamaitachi. Unfortunately, this left her wide open.

Hinata, seizing the moment, lunged forwards with startling speed and ferocity, gracefully turning in a technique she developed herself "Jyuken:" she called out, palms glowing an ephemeral white, "Hakuro Tenbu!"

The spinning action of the dance was as beautiful as it was deadly. Those who knew the pain a single Jyuken strike could create, could only watch on in awe as this new move combined the power of the Jyuken with Hinata's own natural grace. The heiress repeated several consecutive strikes against the Suna nin, all of which connected, with her upperbody, neatly severing all of her chakra. Finally, the Hyuuga heiress slammed both palms into the kunoichi's side, emitting a blast of Jyuken that sent the blonde girl flying.

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"O-kay…" Naruto whistled, raising an eyebrow at the sight below, "THAT'S a new one…she never showed me THAT one while we were training."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at this, but otherwise thanked his lucky stars for not winning the last round, not liking the idea of being pounded into patty by the girl he could have sworn had been as timid as a kitten.

'Guess even a kitten still has claws.' the Nara muttered, shivering unconciously as he eyed prone form of Temari from the railing.

Kankurou was looking decidedly worried about his sister, whilst Gaara looked indifferent, on the outside at least. Internally, there was a small part of him that was tor between concern for her wellbeing, as he'd have to put up with Kaknkurou on his own if she died, and disapointment at the lack of blood in the fight.

Shino was as opaque as usual, but internally the Aburame was proud of his teammate for improving so far in such a little time. He sent a silent nod of approval towards Naruto, who returned it with one of his own, the two understanding each other without the need for words.

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Hinata walked over to the prone form of Temari and pulled out a kunai, "Surrender," she ordered, pointing it at her opponent's throat, "I have no wish to kill you."

Temari could do nothing but glare at the girl as the announcer effectively ended the match. 'Dammit!' she swore, feebly trying to move her arms, as the medic nin came to escort her off to the infirmiry. 'The attack is due to take place any minute…I can't stay like this!'

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"It would appear as if thing's aren't going so well for you, Kazekage-dono." Sarutobi joked, smiling at his younger counterpart. The blue robed kage didn't reply, beyond glaring at the hokage, causing Sarutobi to frown. "Yondaime Kazekage is awfully quiet today," he noted, "normally you'd get into such a froth over such a defeat, especially since it concerns your daughter."

The Kazekage chuckled, "Forgive me," he pleaded cheerfully, eyeing the older kage from behind his veil, "I've not been myself recently."

Sarutobi frowned but said nothing, turning his attention back to the arena below, though on the inside his mind was ticking away like a well oiled clock. 'He's never been this polite before either,' the elder Sarutobi muttered, recalling the Yondaime Kazekage's particularly foul mouth whenever he'd gotten into arguments with the late Yondaime Hokage.

'This man,' he deduced, sending the calm figure next to him a wary look, 'isn't the yondaime Kazekage.'

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Hinata walked into the booth with the other contestants and stood next to Naruto. The Hyuuga flushed as she caught the look in the blonde's eyes, it was a look that practically screamed 'FOX!', a look that drove her up the wall, in a good way of course. One of his masked leers was on his face and she couldn't help but flush at it.

"Been holding that one back have we?" Naruto greeted, a coy look in his eyes as he shook his head teasingly, "You little vixen…"

Hinata's flush deepened and she looked away, while Shino raised an eyebrow. He considered himself as an 'older brother' figure to Hinata, and thus knew of her crush on their blonde classmate. Though said blonde had seemed a little…odd as of late, the Aburame had given his teammate his silent blessing in her endeavors, as any verbal one would have caused unwanted discomfort for the girl.

Though he didn't like where the blonde's hand was going, a little TOO below the belt for his tastes.

"Naruto…can I have a word?" he asked, moving up behind the teen. Naruto jumped, startled, then nodded, following the stoic genin out of the booth. "I understand that you and Hinata have, unofficially, become and item." The Aburame admitted, ignoring the look of interest in the blonde's eyes, "However, I would appreciate it if you would keep your displays of affection…private."

Naruto frowned for a moment, then raised his eyebrows in understanding, "Oh…you saw that." When the Aburame didn't reply he nodded, "Got it Shino, no petting in public." he leered at the Aburame, as if daring him to say anything, "I AM allowed to hug and kiss her though…right?"

Shino, slightly taken back by this nodded anyway. "If she allows it." He stated, before turning to move, only to stop as Naruto held out a hand.

"Shake on it?" Naruto asked, holding his arm out and smirking behind his mask. Shino looked at the hand, then took it, shaking it once and letting his hand drop, turnign back to the waiting booth.

"Was something wrong, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked, looking at the two as they returned, Naruto smiled at her and shook his head.

"Just guy stuff," he assured her, ruffling her hair calmingly, "nothing serious."

Hinata looked confused for a minute, wondering what her stoic teammate could have wanted.

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Ten minutes passed, and the crowd was getting a little…violent, to say the least.

"WHERE'S THE UCHIHA?!"

"WE WANT UCHIHA!"

"WHERE'S MY WALLET?!"

Other than that last one, it would appear that their demands were clear.

"Where the hell IS Sasuke?" Naruto muttered, "Dammit, getting special treatment again, if I'd been late for one second they'd disqualify me."

"I doubt they'd be that extreme." Shikamaru muttered, until the look in Naruto's eyes told him the blonde knew what the hell he was talking about.

"No offense to Sasuke, but if they don't disqualify him, I'm gonna so chew into them." Naruto muttered, "I mean, I want to fight him, but if he can't show up on time, then tough nuggets."

As if he'd spoken through a microphone, Aoba stood foreward and got their attention, "Ladies and gentlemen, it pains me to say this, but we have to continue the matches. The ten-minute window for Uchiha Sasuke has closed, he is now disqualified."

At that second there was a swirl of leaves and, when it cleared, two figures were standing in the clearing, one with silver hair, the other with the Uchiha crest on his back.

"Yo." Kakashi said, "Sorry to keep you waiting." The death glares coming off the audience actually caused the jounin to shiver, looking over at Aoba he asked nervously, "Ano…is something wrong?"

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After Sasuke had been physically dragged away for attempting to murder his jounin sensei, the medics only suceeding after hitting him with enough tranquilizers to take down a horny Jiraiya, Kakashi was gratefully dragged of to the medical ward with severe head trauma, a result of having his head introduced to the arena floor, intimately and repeatedly.

Genma, snickering at the perpetually late cyclops' predicament, shook himself once, before announcing the begining of the second round of the finals.

"Uzumaki Naruto versus Sabaku no Gaara:" the senbon chewing Jounin announced, "Contestants, please enter the arena."

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Naruto looked over at the red-head that had so easily defeated Lee and frowned. 'A clash of the demons,' he noted sarcastically 'just how strong is the Ichibi?'

Shaking himself, the blonde made for the steps, sending a parting wave towards Hinata. "Don't forget our wager, Hinata-chan." He reminded, earning a flush from the girl that caused Shino to raise an eyebrow.

Walking down the corridor the blonde frowned, looking over tyhe bloodstains with morbid fascination. 'Seems someone had a little…misunderstanding.' He thought, noticing the corpses of two shinobi. 'He does quick work.' He muttered appreciatively, before walking past them. 'Hopefully it isn't the result of an itchy trigger finger.'

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Gaara glared at the blonde as he came down the steps, annoyed to no end. The fight with the Uchiha was supposed to be the signal for Orochimaru's invasion, but the homicidal redhead figured that this wouldn't put a wrench in their invasion plans.

'Sorry…kaa-san,' he muttered, wincing as Shukaku bitched on about the quality of blood he'd served the demon recently, 'I fed you some bad blood,' he glared at the blonde as he FINALLY enterred the arena, taking his sweet time as he read some sleazy porn novel, 'and this one doesn't seem to be much better.'

"Hey," Naruto called out, looking up from his page as marked it carefully, "you awake in there? Or is that damn tanuki affecting your hearing?"

Instantly, every sand shinobi in the area felt their heart stop in fear. 'He knows about Shukaku?' Baki muttered, looking around in fear that someone else knew. 'This isn't good.'

Gaara scowled, eyeing the blonde uncertainly. "You know about the monster within," he noted, allowing a little sand to lash around him like serpents, "yet you aren't afraid?"

"Afraid?" Naruto snorted, "Of an over sized raccoon with sand in it's genitals? Nope." He looked the redhead over, "But people don't see things that way…do they?" He snorted as Gaara refused to respond, "Man, I guess what they say about the desert is true," he muttered, eyeing the annoyed redhead with a vulpine grin, "sand DOES get into awkward places…there's gotta be a tonne up your ass at least."

Gaara's response to Naruto's joke was to hurl a mass of sand towards him in attempt to smash the annoying blonde to a bloody pulp. Dodging swiftly, the blonde jinchuuriki used his shuriken to try and distract the redhead, only for Gaara to deflect it with a Suna-bunshin.

"Resourceful…aren't we?" Naruto muttered, watching as the bunshin absorbed the shuriken before dissipating, "Though something tells me that the amount of sand you can use is limited to what's in that overgrown gourd on your back."

Gaara's face remained expressionless, earning a smirk form the blonde, "I'm right aren't I?" he chirped, "The sand in the gourd is actually the effect of old Chakra…and you control it through will power."

"What of it?" Gaara said, annoyed that his technique had been seen through so thoroughly, earnign yet another chuckle from Naruto.

"C'mon, lighten up would you?" the blonde pouted pointing at the sky, "It's a beautiful day, the sun's shining, the birds are singing, and we're just two guys having a friendly spar."

Gaara blinked at the absurdity of the blondes statement, "Are you insane?" he deadpanned, knowing quite well how hypocritical he sounded.

"Everyone's a little insane," Naruto replied, eyes glittering cheekily as he pointed at his own skull, "that's what keeps things interesting."

Gaara couldn't help it, the corner of his lip twitched in the beginnings of a smile, surprising no-one more than himself.

"So what's up with pork boy up there?" Naruto asked, thumbing up at an outraged Kankurou, "Is his Barbie fetish natural or was he abused as a child?"

Gaara was fighting to keep a straight face, the suna no yoroi cracking and falling off, revealing his struggling features. 'What's wrong with me?' he wondered in amazement 'What...is this strange feeling in my chest?'

"Or maybe he's just sexually frustrated," Naruto commented, looking a little sympathetic, "and that things his version of a blow up doll."

That did it, the dam burst.

Time stood still…Hell froze over…Tsunade won at poker.

The representatives of Sunagakure could only watch in disbelief, shock, and a sense of apocalyptic fear.

Sabaku no Gaara, the Ichibi no Jinchuuriki, was laughing his ass off, in public.

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"You see? It really is that good of a day." Naruto repeated, as Gaara rolled around on the ground, clutching his sides, "But seriously, if he's that frustrated, why not just buy a proper blow up doll, using those puppets gotta be murder on his 'ninja tools'." He winced, poiting at his own 'package' in sympathy, "I mean…think of all the splinters…"

This set Gaara into another laughing spiel, actually gasping for air as he pounded on the ground. While up in the stands, Kankurou was too surprised at the sight of Gaara laughing to be outraged. Hinata flushed scarlet at the innuendos, while everyone else seemed to give the black-clothed shinobi a wide berth.

Looking down at his opponent, Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Hey…you okay there?" He knelt next to Gaara, patting him on the back "Talk to me buddy, it's alright, let your feelings out…" he winced, "Just don't come out of the closet or something…I ain't good with that kind of stuff."

Gaara would have strangled the idiot with the sand if the look on the blonde's face hadn't been so comical, causing the redhead to burst out laughing again.

Naruto chuckled, then leaned forwards until his mouth was next to Gaara's ear. "I can help you…seal off Shukaku." he whispered with a smirk.

Gaara stopped laughing abruptly, looking up at the blonde in shock.

"From the looks of things, you haven't had a decent night's sleep in years," Naruto noted "that's because whoever sealed the tanuki fucked things up and did it half-assed." Grinning he thumbed his own chest, "But me? I use my whole ass, pun not intended." He smirked at the redhead.

Gaara stared at the blonde for a moment, before frowning, "And why should I believe you?" he muttered, knowing from experience how treacherous people could be.

Naruto sighed, shaking his head tiredly. "Because us 'Monsters' have to stick together." He replied, letting some of Kyuubi's chakra leak out, enough to send Shukaku in to a fit, his screams of terror ricocheting off the inside of Gaara's skull.

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"What's Naruto doing?" Ino muttered, sitting next to Sakura, "Looks like he's having a heart to heart with that freak…"

"Naruto's a freak himself," Sakura snorted, "maybe their bonding."

Chouji scowled at the two, reminding himself that he couldn't do anything strenuous for a week or so, until his injuries healed, otherwise the two would be eating knuckle sandwiches.

'Naruto,' the Akimichi muttered, 'you don't deserve this kind of treatment…'

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Flashback.

"Hey! Chouji!"

The Akimichi looked up and was surprised to see Naruto in the window. "Thought I'd stop by and pay you a visit, sorry for using the window but the doctors don't like me much here for some reason."

Chouji nodded and let the blonde in, noticing he had a scroll with him, "What's that?"

Naruto grinned and put the scroll on the floor, unrolling it and rubbing some blood across it. When the smoke cleared, two ramen bowls and a book were lying on the floor.

"Knowing you, you're sick of the crap they're feeding you here," Naruto noted, "so I figured I'd treat you to an Ichiraku super sized rib deluxe." He smirked at the genin, "You're favorite right?"

Chouji stared at the massive bowl of sweet, rameny goodness, before turning an awestruck face towards the blonde. "I love you."

Naruto snickered, "Steady there, I'm spoken for." He patted him on the shoulder, "Besides, I make a terrible cook, so there's nothing to see in me anyway."

Chouji snorted, and the two performed the ramen worshipping ritual of snapping chopsticks, slurping the noodles, and downing the heavenly broth with much gusto.

"OH! Almost forgot!" The blonde said, pointing at the book, "Brought you some reading material, figured you'd be bored staring at the walls all day.

Chouji looked at the book in question and choked on his ramen, as the title" Icha-Icha paradise; Directors cut, was burned into his retinas.

"I'd recommend chapter 15…there's an interesting tale about a shinobi, a horde of kunoichi and whipped cream."

End Flashback

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The food was enough to elevate Naruto to God like status in the genin's mind, and he promptly added him to the 'Protect with everything I have' list, right under Shikamaru.

So it was much to the shock of two kunoichi, when the normally laid back Akimichi growled at them.

"Seeing as you two didn't even put up a decent fight in the semi-finals, you've no right to comment on Naruto's actions." Chouji snapped waspishly, glaring at Sakura in particular, before fixing his gaze on Ino, "If you two spent more time training than fantasizing about Sasuke, you'd realize that, out of all the rookies, you're the weakest."

Ino's mouth opened and shut in shock, Sakura was likewise rendered speechless, a first.

"You tell 'em Chouji," Kiba replied with a smirk, "Naruto's strong, that makes him okay in my book." He grinned, "I mean, he took down Hinata's cousin like it was nothing! Forehead and Blondie would've gone down within a minute."

Ino was about to deny that claim when Chouji threw a wrench in the works, "Tell me about it," the chubby teen scoffed, "when we met Neji in the forest, Ino tried flirting with him to get their team's scroll." He snorted, "Needless to say, Neji wasn't impressed."

"He's gay! That's the only reason!" Ino yelled, flushing scarlet, not noticing the glare Tenten was leveling at the back of her head fro further up the stands.

"I can assure you he's not gay."

Everyone jumped as Lee's sudden appearance startled them, "But he has to be!" Ino yelled, "And how would you know anyway, he turn you down?"

"After what I saw him and Tenten doing in the forest," Lee replid, blushing like a tomato, "there's no way Neji-kun is gay." Abruptly, the boy ducked to prevent a mace colliding with his head, as Tenten, hidden amongst the crowd and flushing scarlet, hurled it at him with devastating force.

Kiba whistled, "Peeping on the lovers eh?" he snickered at the embarrassed look on Lee's face. "See anything good?"

"NO! I SAW NOTHING!" Lee yelled, waving his arms comically, broken leg forgotten, "I DIDN'T MEAN TO SEE IT! I WAS LOOKING FOR NEJI AND HEARD HIS NAME AND THEN…" He flushed magenta and began to twiddle his fingers; "Ano…Neji doesn't seem to use his byakugan when he's…occupied…"

Gai was looking down at his student thunderstruck, "LEE! YOU WATCHED THEM?!" he bellowed, a look of pure shock and horror on his face.

"NO SENSEI! I LEFT AS SOON AS…" he twiddled his thumbs, "…as soon as I could move again…"

Kiba grinned, "And how long was that?"

Lee's blush resembled a setting sun, and that was all the answer the rookies needed.

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In the medical room, Neji rubbed his nose, '…this is not a good omen…' he predicted wisely, 'Hyuuga NEVER sneeze…'

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Naruto smiled down at the shocked Gaara, "Like I said, us 'monsters' gotta stick together…" he smiled, "Uzumaki Naruto, Kyuubi no Jinchuuriki at your service."

Gaara's eyes widened as he took in the smile, 'This feeling…what is…' Tears streamed down the redheads face as he stared at his hands in confusion, "Mother…isn't with me?"

Naruto sighed, "That isn't your mother…that's Shukaku pretending." He sighed, "Kyuubi says that he always was a freak, and that he's not surprised to find him cross dressing."

Gaara blinked at the tanuki's outraged yells and laughed, "What do I have to do?"

Naruto grinned, "Relax, just throw the match after we fight for a bit, and I'll seal the bugger properly." He smiled, "I'll even release the genjutsu that stupid priest put on him, so he'll stop pretending to be your mother." He held out a hand, grinning down at the redhead like some benevolent diety.

"Whadd'ya say?"

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CLIFFHANGER NO JUTSU!

Bwahahaha! Lee saw something he shouldn't! And Neji! all that prim and proper behaviour was for naught! Your dirty secret is out!

How will Gaara react?! Tune in next time to find out!


	13. Chapter 13

This is just a little something for all those awaiting the next chapter.

I'm currently going through all my old chapters making corrections to mistakes and adding in a few details to fill in any gaping plotholes.

I apologise if this inconveniences anyone, but until I finish this the newer chapters will have to wait.

That being said, let me assure you this fic is NOT Dead, and will be updated as soon as the relevant chapters have been corrected.

Thank you for your continued support, if you have any suggestions, please state them in a signed review.

Kyugan.


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